All Grown Up
by LolzBolz02
Summary: When the seven grow up, they have children. Zoë, Luke, Bianca, Diana, Tom, Anza, Sammy and Emily. But what happens to these powerful demigods when their parents plot behind their back?
1. Chapter 1: You Called?

**A/N Hi guys, it's LolzBolz here! This is my first story so any review or bit of advice would be appreciated.**

Chapter 1. Practice makes perfect

Percy POV

"Concentrate. Focus. That's it!"

I feel the water around me bending slightly to Zoë's will. I look at her face, screwed up in concentration. She looks exactly like Annabeth in every single way, except for her sea green eyes. My older son Luke, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. He looks exactly like me, but he has his mothers golden blonde hair.

"Alright," I say. "Focus on me. Pretend I am your brother and I have just been teasing you, or beaten you at an arm wrestle."

I know that will work. Zoë is just as competitive as her mother!

In the waist deep water, a wave hits me just under my ribcage.

"Well done Zo!" I yell. "That was such an improvement on last time!"

That is true. Last time it only went up to my belly button.

"Soon enough, you'll be able to do this!" I summon a huge wave, and make it break over her head. I don't worry about her though. She and her brother can both breathe underwater for up to 20 minutes, as long as it's salt. She comes up spluttering.

"DAD!" she yells.

Suddenly, I catch sight of Annabeth, waving from the footpath just in front of our house. When we moved out of New Rome, I made her buy a house on the sea front. I also made her but one only 10 minutes away from camp half-blood, just in case

"There's mum." I say to Zoë. "I think we'd better go in." All of a sudden, an idea hits me. As I whisper it to Zoë, her face lights up.

"Remember, think dry." I tell her. I summon a massive wave that takes us up, over the sand and onto the footpath, soaking Annabeth in the process. She glowers at me, and yells "DAD!" but Zoë and I just ignore her, and instead say in unison "You called!"

She just scowls and points to Zoë, saying, "You, young missie, need to do your homework."

"But mum!" Zoë and I say, in unison again.

"We've got everyone coming round for dinner tonight, and you don't want to be stuck upstairs in your room doing homework all night, do you?" she asks.

"Will Bianca be coming?" says Zoë

"Of course."

As soon as the words are out of her mouth, Zoë is off. She and Bianca are such good friends.

"Yell out if you need any help." Annabeth calls behind her. Like both of us, Zoë is ADHD, but Annabeth has given her a few tips and tricks, and of course, she is an A+ student.

"So, who exactly is coming round?" I ask Annabeth

"Well, all the seven, and of course their kids, plus Reyna, Nico, Will, and Thalia and her new boyfriend Isaac."

Thalia quit the Hunt quite a while ago, saying that a) she couldn't let her younger brother become older than her and b) she wanted a family. She left with Artemis' blessings, and goes to visit them often.

"Also, now I'm soaking wet," she said, with a pointed glance at me, "I'm going to need to wash my hair and get cleaned up again, so can you take care of dinner? I have already done dessert."

"Of course," I reply. "How does spaghetti and blue meatballs sound?"

She rolls her eyes. Spaghetti is one of the three things I can cook, 2 being hamburgers and 3 being beans on toast.

"It sounds perfect." She says. She gives me a quick peck on the cheek and runs inside to get cleaned up.

"Also, if Zo need help with her homework, Luke is upstairs." Annabeth calls over her shoulder. I breathe a sigh of relief. If Zoë needs help with her homework, I'd be about as helpful as a floppy fish. Luke has got dyslexia, but it is nowhere near as severe as Annabeth's or mine. In looks, Luke and I might be identical, in personality; he is so much more like Annabeth. And Zoë acts so much more like an 11 year old me. Except for the fact that she hasn't blown up any schools yet. Don't tell them I said this, but, I can sense that Zoë's power over water will be stronger than Luke's, but it is obvious that Luke is much more hardworking that Zoë when it comes to school. As I walk inside to cook dinner, I think about how much I'm looking forwards to seeing everyone again, even Thalia and Nico. Lets just hope we don't all get into a fight again. That didn't end well.

 **Thanks for reading (If there actually was anyone reading). Please comment if you liked. No hate please.**


	2. Chapter 2: Broshake

**Hi everyone, LolzBolz again.**

 **I just wanted to say thanks to Awesome Person aka Guest, RogueFox1 and Madgirl013 for reviewing. Madgirl013, you are probably right about Thalia, but Maths isn't my strong point and so can you just pretend for the sake of my story that Thalia is like a year older?**

 **It's the 11** **th** **August today. A week before Percy's 37** **th** **birthday.**

Chapter 2 Arrivals

Percy POV

The first to arrive are Frank, Hazel, Sammy and Emily. Sammy and Emily are twins, and are a few weeks younger that Luke. The three of them get along really well. Sammy looks so much like Hazel, but can transform into a few animals, as long as he knows them really well. Emily looks very similar to Frank, but can summon few select types of metals. Like Hazel, when she gets nervous, she summons precious metals without even realizing it. As soon as I open the door, Annabeth runs down the hall, screaming like a high schooler.

"OH MY GODS, ITS SO GOOD TO SEE YOU!" she yells.

"EEEEEEEEE!" squeals Hazel back. They hug; do all the girly things while Frank and I do our secret bro handshake (or the broshake, as we call it). The one only him, Jason, Leo, Nico and I know, although Nico will only do it under sufferance. I go give Hazel a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and then I go to bend down to give Sammy and Emily a hug, when I realise that they are both nearly up to my shoulder.

"Wow, you guys have grown!" I say, while giving them both hugs.

"I know, and Uncle Percy, guess what! I am a whole inch taller that Sammy!" exclaims Emily. I shoot Sammy an apologetic look and mouth 'you'll catch her eventually'. Then Zoë and Luke come running down the hallway. Luke and Sammy do their own broshake, while Emily picks Zoë up and spins her round.

Next to arrive are Jason, Piper, Diana and Tom. Diana is about a month older that Luke, and is a perfect mix of both Jason and Piper. She has her mothers exact shade of brown hair, and her fathers startling blue eyes. The rest of her features are just the right blend of the two. She is not as pretty as Piper, but she almost is. Tom, who is about a month younger than Zoë, doesn't really look like either of them. He has white-blonde hair and brown eyes. I guess he kind of has Jason's nose, and his eyes are the same shape as Piper's, but that's about it. As I open the door this time, Annabeth, Hazel, Zoë and Emily all run down the hall screaming, and I am nearly trampled. Then of course, Frank comes down the hall and we do a three-way-broshake. I say hi to Diana and give her a hug, then bend down to say hi to Tom. He has never been the most boisterous kid, but something seems off.

"Hey buddy, what up?" I ask, trying to get a conversation going.

"Diana" he replies

"What?"

"Diana can fly and I can't."

"Oh. And when did Diana learn she could fly?"

"Yesterday."

"Well how old is Diana?"

"Fourteen."

"And how old are you?"

"Eleven."

"Exactly. I'm sure you'll be able to fly when you're fourteen."

"Oh yeah! I didn't think about that. Thanks uncle Percy!"

"What are favourite uncles for?" I joke.

He grins at me, and runs off to play with Zoë.

"Percy, what did you do?" asks Piper "He's been moping around ever since Diana started flying."

"I just told him that I'm sure when he's fourteen, he'll probably be able to fly." _'Or charmspeak'_ I think, but didn't say it out loud. Piper doesn't want her kids to inherit THAT.

"You're a genius. Why didn't we think of that?"

"Uh, duh. You said so yourself. I'm a genius!"

Piper just rolled her eyes and continued on down the hall with Annabeth and Hazel.

"How you been, bro?" I ask Jason. "Still building temples for those minor gods?"

"Yup," he replies. "I think I'm nearly done though."

"Okay, well, if you need any help, don't hesitate to give me a call."

"Thanks bro."

Just as Jason sits down, there is a chicken noise from the front door. Jason, Frank and I exchange glances.

"LEO!" We all yell. He must've done something to our doorbell. This time it's us running down the hallway like idiots! Leo and Calypso are standing there, Calypso holding their one-year-old, Esperanza.

"Leo! How you going' man?" Jason asks.

"Not too bad. This one has finally stopped keeping us up at nights," he says, jerking a finger at Esperanza.

Even as a baby, she has Calypso's long brown hair, and Leo's Latino complexion. The kids must've heard the chicken noise, because just then they come running down the stairs and into the hallway.

"Hi uncle Leo!" They all yell in unison

"Hey kids!" he yells back.

Luke, Sammy and Tom all run in for a hug and most likely a corny joke, while Zoë, Diana and Emily surround Calypso.

"Awwww she is soooooo cute!" says Emily

"Hi Anza," says Diana. "You have grown so much!"

"Can I hold her?" Zoë asks quietly.

"Of course you can Zo, just be really careful," says Calypso, as she places Anza in her arms.

The kids then all go back upstairs to play, presumably with Anza, when the doorbell makes a mooing noise this time.

"Leo you're gonna need to fix that!" I yell as I go to answer the door.

It's Thalia and Isaac. As soon as I open the door, I pick up Thalia and swing her round

"Hey, cuz!" I yell. As I put her down, I whisper in her ear, "Does he know?"

She slowly shakes her head. It's going to be tricky, pretending not to be a demigod, especially after all we've been through together, but for Thalia's sake, I know we can do it.

After saying hi to Thalia, I turn to Isaac.

"Hi, my name is Percy. I'm Thalia's cousin. Welcome to my home. Do you have any objections to eating blue food?"

Isaac shakes his head and looks at me like I'm from another planet. Thalia whispers something in his ear and he breaks into a smile.

"Come on in," I say, and lead the way into the dining room. All the girls and Jason stand up and give Thalia a hug. Just as

I'm about to sit down, the doorbell makes a baaing sound, like a sheep.

"Who do you think it is?" I ask everyone. "Either Nico and Will or Reyna."

"Oh, no Percy, I forgot to mention, Reyna texted my, she can't make it, but she says she promises to catch up with us soon." Annabeth says.

"Oh. Nico and Will it is."

Just as I'm about to go down the hall, Zoë and Tom come running down the stairs.

"We'll get it dad!" Zoë yells, but I go anyway. Knowing those two, they will let Bianca inside and just close the door on Nico and Will.

Zoë opens the door and Bianca runs inside, followed by Zoë and Tom.

"Hi uncle Percy," she yells as she goes past, her long brown hair streaming behind her, her emerald green eyes sparkling with excitement. I let Nico and Will in, take them through to the dining room and announce, "Finally, we can eat!"

 **Thanks for reading, don't forget to review if you liked it!**


	3. Chapter 3: Surprise!

**Chapter 3 Dinner (Or so I thought)**

 **Percy POV**

We all sit around and chat for a while, until Thalia, Jason, Nico, Hazel and my tummies start rumbling. Annabeth rolls her eyes.

"What is it with all the children of the big- I mean, you five?" She says, with a sideways glance at Isaac. "They all eat so much!"

"Yeah, but none of us eat as much a Percy!" Thalia says

"True that!" I say proudly. "Remember that time we had an eating contest. I won by a mile!"

"Well, since you guys are all so hungry, I'd better get dinner organized. Percy, come help."

"Ohhhh, but Wise Girl!" I moan. "I cooked it! Do I HAVE to help?"

"Percy cooked?" Piper asks. "Well Annabeth, this I have to see. And make sure it's not poison. I'll help serve."  
"Thanks Pipes."

"So, Percy, what have you cooked?" asks Hazel

"Spaghetti and blue meatballs," I say proudly.

"Dude, you never told us, what is with your obsession with blue food?" Leo asks.

"WELL!" I say. "Let uncle Percy tell you a story. One day there was a lovely woman called Sally Jackson. She married an awful man named Gabriel, or as her son Percy liked to call him, Smelly Gabe. One day, he told them that there was no such thing as blue food. Ever since then, they have gone out of their way to eat blue food. The end."

"If he was so awful, why did your mom decide to marry him?" asks Isaac. Everybody else already knows.

"Ummm…well… it was to protect me from… some stuff," I say, trying to think on my feet, but unfortunately, I'm not Annabeth.

"Oh." He says. He must be able to read emotions well, because he doesn't press the matter.

All of a sudden there is a loud knock at the door.

"I'll get it," I say.

"Race ya, Kelp Head," Thalia says, jumping up.

I win, of course, and open the door to see Phoebe and a couple of other hunters of Artemis. Thalia squeals and goes to hug Phoebe, but she just ignores her, and instead yells,

"Monster Army! Camp-Half-Blood! NOW!"

Sure enough, in the distance, I can see a monster army marching steadily towards the house. I mentally slap myself. Even if we are grown up, five children of the big three give off a Hades of a lot of demigod smell. I usher the hunters inside and say

"You let the other know. I'll get the kids."

I run inside and yell "Kids, come downstairs NOW!"

They must've heard the urgency in my voice because as they come down the stairs, Luke is holding tightly to Zoë's hand, Sammy is holding onto Emily protectively, Diana is giving Tom a piggyback and Bianca is holding onto little Esperanza like a lifeline.

"Get in the cars, now," I say. By the time we reach the hallway, I am holding both Annabeth and Zoë's hand, and Annabeth is also holding Luke's. As we are getting in the car I swear I see Annabeth, Piper and Hazel exchange a smile, but then I blink, and it's gone.

"I'll see you at camp!" I yell to everyone, and then pull out behind Leo and Calypso, with Piper and Jason behind me, Nico and Will behind them, Hazel and Frank second last, and Isaac and Thalia at the back, probably because their car has only one demigod, compared to everyone else who has either three or four.

* * *

 **Thalia POV**

"WHAT'S GOING ON!" yells Isaac, a look of pure terror on his face. Good. He should be terrified. It is his first monster attack and he has absolutely no idea what's going on.

"Ummm, well…" I say, stalling. He's driving. He'll probably crash the car if I tell him. "Pull over. I'm driving."

"Thals, no way am I letting you drive. Apparently we're in mortal danger of something." That's one of the reasons I love him. He's so protective of me. But now is not the time.

"Just pull over!" I snap.

His eyes widen, and he knows I mean business. As he pulls over, my special phone that Leo made for me so we can't be detected by monsters starts ringing. Of course it's Percy. Why is he so freakishly protective! It sometimes gets really annoying. I pick up anyway; otherwise he will turn back and ruin the whole plan.

"What are you doing!" he yells down the phone. "Are you crazy?!"

"No, I'm not. I have my reasons. Can you wait, for just a sec? We'll call you back."

"Sure," he replies shakily.

"Okay Isaac," I say, pulling back out onto the road. "Listen up. You probably won't believe me until I prove it, but all of us are demigods."  
"Demi- what now's?" he splutters, a look of disbelief on his face. I sigh.

"Demigods. We are all children of the ancient Greek and Roman gods. I am a daughter of Zeus, the God of the sky, Jas-"

"Thals, this is not funny. Stop it. WHAT IS GOING ON!" he yells again.

"Demigods are a monsters favourite snack. I'll explain later, but let me finish. As I said, I am a daughter of Zeus. Jason, my brother, is a son of Jupiter, Zeus' Roman form. Percy is a son of Poseidon, the god of the sea. Annabeth is a daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom and war strategy. Nico is a son of Hades, lord of the underworld, god of the dead. Hazel is a daughter of Pluto, Hades Roman form. Will is a son of Apollo, god of music, poetry, the sun, and etcetera. Fr-"  
"What do you mean, etcetera"  
"If I were to list all the things Apollo was the god of, we'd be here all week. May I continue?" He nods, solemnly. I can tell he still doesn't believe me.

"Frank is a son of Mars, Roman god of war. Leo is a son of Hephaestus, the god of blacksmiths and fire. Piper is a daughter of Aphrodite, goddess of love, and Calypso, well, that's complicated. She used to be a titan, then some stuff happed, and now she's not."

It's not working. He still doesn't believe me.

"If this is some sort of practical joke I swear I'll-"

"It's not. Ring Percy back and put it on speaker phone will you?"

Percy, of course, picks up right away.

"Are you okay?"

"Of course. Isaac doesn't believe me. I'm going to summon a lighting bolt to hit the road just in front of Leo and Calypso. Can you then do a crazy cool water thing?" I ask.

"Have you forgotten who you are talking to? Of course I can do a water thing!"

I roll my eyes, hang up, and summon a lightning bolt. Percy of course, has to outdo me and calls up a MEGA wave. I emerges all of our cars, but amazingly, they stay right where they are, and come out completely dry.

"Okay, ring Leo," I instruct, and, unusually he also picks up straight away.

"What did I do this time?" he asks accusingly.

"Huh?" I say, completely confused

"That was YOUR lightning bolt, right? Or was it Zeus'? Oh no, what have I done to tick him off this time?!"

"Leo, calm down. It was my lightning bolt, and I'm trying to prove to Isaac our demigodness, and here's what were gonna do. You're going to get Calypso to drive, and I'm going to ring Jason. He's going to fly over to your car, pick you up, and you're going to burst into flames. Cool?"

"Cool!"

I knew he would say that. He'll take any opportunity he gets to show off.

"Ring Jason next," I instruct. I tell Jason the plan, and while he's preparing I tell hi to give the phone to Piper.

"Hey Pipes." I say, in my sweetest voice. "Could you help me out for a sec?"

"What do you need me to do?" She sighs.

"Can you just tell Isaac to like, I don't know, take off his seatbelt?"

"Okay. Isaac, take off your seatbelt."

As if in a trance, Isaac reaches down and undo's his seatbelt. Her charmspeak is so powerful that I nearly took off my seatbelt, but I had to remind myself that she was talking to Isaac.

"Thanks Pipes, you're awesome."

"I know."

I tell Isaac to ring Frank, but before he does he asks me,

"What power was that?!"

"Oh, it's called charmspeak. She can basically make you do whatever she want's."

"And she's a daughter of the love goddess?'  
"Yep."

"That makes sense."

"I know, now ring Frank."

"Hey Frank, we're trying to prove our demigodness, can you put us on to Hazel and then do some awesome transformation stuff? Thanks."

I hear Frank sigh, but he doesn't protest. He hands the phone to Hazel, rolls down the window and changes into an eagle. In midair he turns into a dragon.

"YEAH FRANK! WHOOO!" I yell.

"What are you talking about?" Isaac asks.

"Ohhhh. Right, forgot about the mist. See that bird up there? Its actually Frank, and he's actually a dragon." I say, laughing at the look on Isaac's face. "Hazel, can you thin the mist around Isaac? He can't see any of this." I say into the phone. As she does his eyes widen, and I know he's seeing Frank in his dragon form. When Frank lands, he turns into a gorilla, then runs back to the car. He is like the exact opposite of Leo. Hates showing off unless it's absolutely necessary.

"I thought you said he was the son of the war god!" Isaac said.

"He is," I say, dumbfounded.

"What does transformation have to do with war?"

"It's complicated," I reply. "I'll explain later."

Out of the corner of my eye, I see a speck of gold flames contrasting to the dark night sky.

"Aaaand if you look to your left, you will see my flying brother and his best friend Leo the lighthouse," I say in my best tour guide voice. His mouth is opening and closing like a fish, and for the first time since I've know him, Isaac is lost for words. I smile to myself and say "And we're not even done yet!"

"Hazel, you still there?" I say into the phone.

"Yeah, what do you want me to do?" she asks worriedly.

"All I need is for you to summon a few gold bars just in front of our car? Thanks!" I say, and hang up before she can protest. Sure enough, a few seconds later, they appear.

"That just leaves one," I say. I can see Isaac's brow furrow as he does the math in his head

"As I said, Calypso isn't really a demigod, and don't talk to Annabeth or Will about powers. They are preeeety touchy. Although Will does kind of have a superpower if you consider his healing, but that's a story for another time. Now, do you believe me about our demigodness, or does Nico have to summon the dead?"

Isaac's eyes widen.

"I'll take that as a summon the dead. Can you ring Nico? Thanks."

"I'm not summoning the dead. Nu uh. No way," Nico says as he answers the phone.

"That's no way to speak to your older cousin Nico." I reply "Can you put me onto Will?"

"Sure."

"Hey Will, can you convince Nico to summon at least one dead person? I'll promise never to hit you with another lightning bolt ever again?!"

"Um, that's actually surprisingly tempting. I've been hit with one of those things waaaay to many times. I'll see what I can do."

"Yes!" I yell as Isaac hangs up. Sure enough, in about 3-seconds-flat a small, dead, zombie type thing pops up on the road in front of us.

"What IS that thing," Isaac yells, disgusted.

"Oh, you know, just a dead person."

"Riiiiiight,"

"Oh would you look at that. We're here!" I say, motioning in front of us.

* * *

 **Percy POV**

"Get into the boundaries!" I yell at Annabeth and the kids, pulling out Riptide. "I'll hold them off!"

"There's too many of them!" Annabeth yells back. "Just come inside the boundaries and we'll work it out later!"

As I turn around, the camp is dark and lifeless. That's not right. I heard Annabeth call Chiron. He at least should be waiting for us. I turn back around and see the monster army getting closer. Annabeth's right. There's too many of them. Everyone else is inside the boarder, motioning for me to come inside. I'll find out what's going on with the camp, at least. As I step inside, still clutching Riptide, the camp comes to life.

"SURPRISE!" Everyone yells.

Half-blood-hill erupts with sound and colour. I can see all the cabins decorated with streamers, and Thalia's pine tree is covered with balloons and _Happy Birthday Percy_ signs. I catch sight of the big house, and see it has been decorated with a massive _We Love You Seaweed Brain_ sign. Thalia catches me staring at it and smiles.

"I wanted to make it say _Kelp Head You Suck_ , but Annabeth wouldn't let me," she teases.

"H- how did you get Mr. D to agree to this?" I ask. "And Chiron? Shouldn't all the campers be asleep?"

"Don't worry about it," Thalia says. "I'm sure Annabeth can tell you all the details tomorrow."  
"One more thing, Sparky. How did you get the monsters?"

"It was all a trick of the mist," she replies mysteriously.

"HAZEL!" I yell, and storm off to find her, and presumably soak her in water.


	4. Chapter 4: Grover has an announcement!

**Hey, guys, I'm back. So this is just a filler chapter. I'm not really happy with it, but if you like it, please comment to help me out.**

 **Also, thanks to xReneexx, RougeFox1, lionsarecool and fury999 for following.**

 **xReneexx: Here it is!**

 **fury999: I'm gonna take that as a compliment**

 **fangirl360 aka guest: I don't know what you mean my genetics, can you clarify please?**

 **TheFancyFox aka guest: Thank you so much for your kind words. I was worried that they were a bit OOC so this made me feel much better.**

Percy POV

After Hazel has had the soaking she deserves, I wander off to mingle with all my friends. I see Conner and Travis trying to tie something to Thalia's pine tree, and Katie and Danni watching from afar with looks of identical disproval on their faces. Like mother like daughter, I guess. I even see Clarisse and Chris, with their son Liam. I wave to Clarisse, but she just scowls back. Chris obviously made her come. I spot Zoë and Bianca running around with some other 11-year-old. I think her name is Stephanie, but I'm not sure. She is definitely a daughter of Apollo. She looks so much like Will. They wave to me as they run past. I smile back, and then turn around only to find Reyna staring right at me. I give her a wave and she runs over to me and gives me a tight hug.

"It's been so long!" she exclaims.

"I know," I say. "It's been, what, two months?!"

"I something like that. Anyway, there's someone I want you to meet."

A man about 34ish steps out.

"Hi, my name's Finn. I'm a child of Mars, and I'm Reyna's boyfriend. We've been going out for about six weeks now."

I try to hold back a smile. It's not often that you meet someone so open and straightforward.

"Hi Finn. I'm Percy Jackson, child of Poseidon, and I'm one of Reyna's closest friends. I've know her since she was about 16." I smirk. He blushes slightly, because he obviously didn't know who I was, or that Reyna and I were so close.

"Percy," Reyna says. "It's your birthday party, we don't want to keep you for too long. I just wanted to say hi, and introduce you to Finn. We'll catch up properly another time."

I look at her gratefully, and go off to find some of my other friends.

Almost as soon as I turn around, I am tackled by a familiar redhead.

"Happy birthday Kelp Head," she squeals.

"Thanks Rachel. How are you?" I ask. It's been ages since I've seen her.

"I'm okay. I felt really bad because I delivered a prophecy to someone predicting death, but they returned and it turns out that the death was just a monster."

We continue making small talk, until she says,

"We'll I've gotta go talk to Chiron. I'll see you 'round Kelp Head."

So I go look for my Wise Girl.

When she notices me looking, for her, she comes over.

"My birthday isn't for another week," I pretend to scold her.

"Well, if it was on your birthday, you would've been suspicious. Do you like it?" she asks, concerned

"Of course I do Wise Girl. You organized it. And don't worry, Thalia told me about how the monsters were, and I quote 'a trick of the mist,'"

"Oh yeah, I saw Hazel looked a bit wet."

"Also, why did you choose my 37th birthday? Why not wait another three years and have a massive 40th celebration?"

"Again, you would've been suspicious."

"How did you organize all this without me realising?" I ask.

"Oh, there was a lot of planning at Piper and Jason's," she replies with a grin.

"Did the kids know about this?"

"Of course not. They couldn't keep a secret if their lives depended on it!" Annabeth jokes. Then her face falls. "Lets just hope it never does."

As I walk away, my stomach grumbles.

"Oh yeah, I forgot, we still haven't eaten yet," Annabeth says. She runs over to Chiron, who in turn talks over to Mr. D. Mr. D reluctantly claps his hands and the tables are filled with any sort of food you can imagine.

Once we have all had our fill, everyone starts chanting, "SPEECH, SPEECH!"

I reluctantly stand up and everyone is silent.

"Hi, everyone," I start nervously. "Umm, thanks for coming to celebrate my birthday. It really means a lot to me," I manage to say, before sitting down again. How is it that I can speak fine in front of gods, but in front of my friends, I clam up? Anyway, out the corner of my eye, I see Grover and Juniper stand up.

"Grover has an announcement!" I yell, and get everyone's attention.

"All heads turn to Grover and Juniper, and a bit of pink creeps up his face. I instantly feel bad. Grover is worse at public speaking that I am.

"Um, yeah-, um- we just- err," He stammers. Juniper takes his hand.

"Grover and I wanted to announce to everyone properly that, I'm pregnant!"

The entire camp erupts with the noise of clapping, cheering and whistles, and Grover's slight blush turns into a face that resemble a tomato. I make a mental note to congratulate him later. In the meantime, I'm just going to enjoy myself! It is my party, after all.

So, thanks for reading. Again, if you like it comment. Just a warning: the next chapter will (hopefully) break you're feels, because it did while I was writing it.


	5. Chapter 5: Noises in the Night

**Hey all! So, I'm back, sorry I haven't updated in a while, its just this chapter broke my feels to write. Thanks to daici95 and camilu257 for favouriting/following.**

 **TheFancyFox: Thanks for the comment, I'll try to include that in my story.**

 **Chapter 5: Noises in the Night**

Annabeth POV

"Percy. Percy! Wake up!" I whisper.

He rolls over and mumbles "C'mon Wise Girl. Just five more minutes."

"No, Percy, I heard a noise."

"Sorry Annabeth, I'll try to stop snoring."

"No Seaweed Brain, I heard a noise like- like a m-monster," I can barely bring myself to say it, thinking that if I do, it will make it come true.

Quick as a flash, Percy is up and pulling on a jumper. Despite myself, I allow a small smile. How am I so lucky to have him. I get up and stand next to Percy.

"I'll check on Zoë," he says. "You check Luke."

And so we walk hand in hand down the freshly carpeted landing, past the staircase, and to the doors outside the kid's rooms. They are just as we left them last night. That's a good sign. I slowly open the door to Luke's room, expecting to see him stir slightly. Nothing. I go over to his bed, and see it is empty, but still warm. Maybe Zoë just had a nightmare, and he went into her room to comfort her. Yeah, that's it, that's all it is, I say to myself. I creep back out into the hallway, and find Percy standing there, a worried expression on his face.

"Are they in there?" he asks me.

"No, I thought Zo might've had another nightmare, and Luke might've gone into comfort her."

"I thought the same thing, only that Zoë might've gone into find Luke."

"The bed is still warm, so they can't have been gone long," I point out. "Maybe they're just hiding."

"Yeah, maybe. ZOË! LUKE! WHERE ARE YOU!" he yells. "IF YOU ARE HIDING, COME OUT RIGHT NOW. THIS ISN'T FUNNY!" he says, getting more and more distressed.

"Come on, Seaweed Brain," I say, trying to calm him. "Lets go look for them downstairs."

As we walk downstairs, for Percy's sake, I try to hold back the tears and, thankfully, he is too preoccupied to notice. I run down the last few steps and into the kitchen. I panic when I see a note on the bench.

"P- Percy, come here," I stammer. "I-I found a note."

It is written with letters cut out from magazines. Not good for dyslexia, but we finally manage to decipher it and I break down into tears.

It says,

 _Hope you enjoyed your birthday,_

 _it will be your last._

 _We'll start with the kids,_

 _We'll take you last._

 _We'll pick you off,_

 _two by two,_

 _until all that's left,_

 _are gravestones, not you._

I start sobbing even harder, and curl up on the floor, while Percy strokes my hair, his own tears mixing with mine. I try to calm myself and think, but I am too heartbroken to think straight.

"We need to tell someone," Percy says. "We need to let the others know they are in danger."

I muster the strength to sit up and nod.

"I'll ring Hazel and Frank and Thalia, you can ring Piper and Jason, Nico and Will and Leo and Calypso," I tell Percy. "Maybe they can help us find them."

He nods, and I see his eyes fill with fresh tears. I run upstairs to get my phone, and quickly glance at the time. It read 2:15am, but right now, I don't care. I just need to tell someone. With my hands shaking, I manage to ring Hazel.

"Hello?" she answers croakily.

As soon as I hear her voice, I start crying again.

"Annabeth? Annabeth, what's wrong? Is something wrong with Percy, or the kids?"

I just sob harder, and manage to say

"Can- can you- r-ring Thals- and th-then c-come over as s-soon as y-you c-can?"

"Of course, we'll be there in 10," she says. We are so lucky to have the friends we do. I don't know what we'd do without them.

I stumble back downstairs and Percy and I just sit on the couch, cuddling, silent tears streaming down our faces. I can practically hear his prayers to the gods, echoing mine. Sure enough, in ten minutes exactly, the doorbell rings and all of our friends are standing there, in their pajamas, the kids still rubbing sleep out of their eyes. When I see them, shivering in the cool night air, I feel a fresh batch of sobs making their way up my body. This is just proof of what I've always known, that our friends would do anything for us. I collapse into Percy, and Piper, Hazel, Thalia, Calypso and Rachel surround me and give me a group hug.

"Why don't you kids go upstairs and play?" I hear Percy suggest.

"Where's Luke?" Diana asks, which of course sets me off again.

"Him and Zoë are.. um… out, for a while, but you can have fun without them, can't you?"

"Yeah, I guess," Diana replies, but she doesn't sound convinced.

As soon as we hear the footsteps subside, Percy leads us into the kitchen, where the dreaded note is still on the bench. We couldn't bring ourselves to touch it. Percy sits on one of the chairs, more tears welling in his eyes, and I sit on his lap, searching for comfort. He plays with my curls, knowing it calms me, while Rachel reads out the note to the rest of the demigods. Halfway through, she breaks down and Frank has to take over. By the time he gets to the end, everyone has tears in their eyes.

"Right!" Leo announces. "We are going to get the kids back. We are going to work out who took them and where they took them. We are going to come up with a plan and it's going to kick butt."

 **Ohhhh, cliffhanger. Sorry, I just couldn't bring myself to write anymore. I am crying, and I KNOW what's going to happen.**

 **The more reviews I get, the sooner I update, so… HAHAHA! I'm evil!**

 **Also, I have this story on wattpad. My username and this story name are both the same, just in case anyone... yeah, I think you get it. Virtual blue cookies to you all! (::) (::) (::)**


	6. Chapter 6: Fear

**A/N Hey guys, I'm back! This is going to be my last update for a while because I'm going on an overseas holiday (so excited!) tomorrow. I just thought I'd put this chapter up before I go.**

Diana POV

I'm suspicious. Of course I am. What, with Auntie Beth crying, my best friend missing and us showing up at their house at 2:30 in the morning, who wouldn't be? Obviously the little kids. And Emily. She's too nice and trusting. That's what Mum and Dad say about Auntie Hazel too. But I can see on his face that Sammy doesn't believe the story that Uncle Percy told us either. I pull him and Emily aside.

"There is something going on here, and we are going to get to the bottom of it," I tell them forcefully.

Sammy nods in agreement, but Emily doesn't look convinced.

"What it we get in trouble?" she asks.

"Who cares? Luke and Zoë are missing, most likely kidnapped, and you expect us to sit here and do nothing?" I almost yell.

"Shhhh, keep your voice down. We don't want to scare the little ones." Sammy warns. "But I agree. We _have_ to do something."

"I'm gonna go down and see if I can hear what they are talking about, you guys stay here. I'll report back soon."

"Be careful!" Emily yells behind me.

I run down the stairs, and slow down as I get closer to the kitchen doorway.

"Who could it have been?" Rachel asks.

"Probably some monsters who want revenge from Gaea's downfall," Uncle Percy says, sniffing slightly.

"Should we call the police?" Rachel says.

"Well, they won't be able to do anything, but we should probably call them anyway. Maybe they can broadcast a picture of them on the news, just in case they show up. Luke's knife was gone, so maybe he and Zoë can put up a fight of their own."

"Don't worry Perce, we'll get 'em back," Uncle Leo reassures him.

"You're gonna have to be extra careful though. It sounds like they wanted revenge on all of us," comes Uncle Percy's voice again.

"You guys are going to have to be careful too," warns Mum.

"If it means being reunited with my kids again, I don't want to be careful," says Auntie Beth.

"That's no way to talk," replies mum, and I can hear her put a tiny bit of charmspeak in her voice.

"What are we gonna do?" Dad asks. "We can't just have monsters breaking into our houses every other night, kidnapping our children and then eventually, taking us!"

"WHAT!" I yell. "LUKE AND ZOË HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED BY MONTERS, AND WE'RE GOING TO BE AS WELL?!"

Dad comes over and strokes my hair.

"No one is going to take you away, don't worry," he soothes me. "We're going to work something out."

"I don't believe you!" I yell, pushing him away. "I've heard about the war with Gaea, and how the monsters would do anything to stop you! I'm going to be taken, and so are the rest of us."

"Di, don't talk like that. We are ready for them now. We are going to make a plan, find Luke and Zoë, and get rid of the monsters once and for all!" says auntie Hazel, but I don't know who she was trying to reassure; me, herself, or auntie Annabeth. I run over to where uncle Percy and auntie Annabeth are sitting and whisper into Annabeth's ear,

"Don't worry auntie Beth! When Tom and I are taken, we'll find Zo and Luke, and we'll make a plan and free ourselves."

"Don't call me Beth," she said with a weak smile.

"Sorry auntie," I reply cheekily.

They shoo me back upstairs so they can make a plan, and I tell Sammy and Emily what I heard. As I'm talking, I feel a little body press into me, and tears soaking my pajama t-shirt. I look down and see Bianca sobbing into me. She must've been listening in to us, like I was listening into the adults. I bend down to her eye level and stroke her long brown hair. I pull a tissue out of the box, and wipe her eyes.

"How much did you hear?" I whisper

"A-all of i-it," is her shaky reply.

"Don't worry," I reassure her. "I'm sure Tom and I will be taken before you, and Luke, Zoë, Tom and I make an unbeatable team. We'll defeat the monsters before they even get a chance to leave to come and get you."

She smiles weakly at me, and I feel a sudden urge to protect this innocent little girl, and all my other 'cousins'. This is how our parents must've felt when they had to save the whole world, and all the innocent mortals in it.

A few hours later, we are all bundled in the car, on the way back home. Tom is sound asleep, but I'm too nervous to be even remotely tired. I just sit in the back seat, chewing my nails like I do when I'm anxious. Dad catches me, and tries to reassure me.

"Don't worry Di," he tells me. "We're going to work something out, remember? You and Tom are completely safe."

I nod, tears filling my eyes. We both know it is a lie, but for mums sake, and Tom's, we need to be strong. I make a mental note to sleep with my dagger on me, and to tell Tom to do the same.

"Safe from what?" Tom asks, making us all jump.

"How long have you been awake?" Dad asks suspiciously.

"The whole time. I wanted to pretend to be asleep so you would carry me inside, but I got too curious."

Mums sighs. "It's nothing hon. Don't worry about it."

"No, it's not," Tom says stubbornly. "Otherwise Di wouldn't be biting her nails, Dad wouldn't look so stressed and you wouldn't try to hide anything from me."

"Why are you so observant?" Mum complains. "I blame you, Sparky."

She's just trying to change the subject, I can tell, so I decide to step in.

"Luke and Zoë were kidnapped by we don't know who, and whoever they are want to target all of the seven, and their kids," I say, emotionlessly. "Oh, and we're pretty sure that we're the next targets."

Tom takes it better than I expected him to. He just nods, looking grim, and then furrows his brow, like he's making a plan.

"Don't worry though," Dad repeats. "We're going to do everything we can to stop them. Uncle Leo's going to make an alarm so we can detect them, and there's always going to be someone on watch."

The next morning I wake up, relieved I'm still in my own bed. We all spend the whole day planning, installing and the grown ups help us practice with our swords and knives. I, personally favor a knife, like Mum, but Tom has a sword which he conceals as a key ring. All the kids are improving so much. That night, Tom and I go to bed scared for our lives, but we wake up surprised, because we are still at home. I immediately panic, thinking that Sammy and Emily have been taken, or even poor Bianca and Anza, so I jump out of bed and fly downstairs as fast as I possibly can, and ask Mum and Dad what happened.

"Nothing," Mum says, looking just as surprised as I feel.

'Wha-, but the m-monsters?"

"They must've known about the alarms Leo put in and training that we did, and decided that we were too tough for them," Dad says, grinning.

I smile back, but I still don't believe we're safe.

'Do you want breakfast?" Mum asks me, as if this is just a normal day. And then it dawns on me.

"You don't seriously expect me to go to school and act like everything's normal?" I ask her, and to my dismay, she nods.

"My best friend has been kidnapped and is who knows where, and you want me to go and learn how to calculate the volume of a stupid cylinder?!" I yell.

"Diana, don't talk to your mother like that," Dad scolds.

"No, she's right," Mum says. "We can't expect her to act like everything's normal. Maybe she should help us look?"

"No. Absolutely not. It's much too dangerous," Dad says.

"Well you can't make me go to school," I say defiantly.

"No," Mum agrees. "How about all the kids come over to our place and continue training. I'll stay here and help them."

"Okay, but I doubt they'll need to fight monsters anytime soon."

So that's what we do. We spend all day training in the backyard. Well, everyone else trains. I spend most of the time on the phone to all my aunties and uncles, trying to find out where my missing cousins are, with Esperanza on my lap.

When it gets too dark to keep searching, everyone comes and picks up the kids and heads home.

"Alright you two, time for bed. You're not getting out of school tomorrow," Dad tells us.  
"I still don't feel safe, Dad," I tell him once Tom has gone to his room. "I want to sleep in Toms room."

"Di, I'm sure you won't need to. Uncle Leo's put in the alarm system and either you mother or I will be guarding at all times," he says reassuringly.

"I don't care. I want to be there for Tom, just in case."

"Fine," he sighs, and helps me to drag my mattress into Tom's room.

After mum and Dad have come in to say goodnight, I whisper to Tom, "Have you got your key ring?"

"Yes, it's in my pocket," comes his muffled reply. "But Dad said we were safe. Why will I need it?"

"I'm sure you won't," I tell him. "It's just to be safe."

"Goodnight you two," Dad yells. "It's time to stop talking, and don't worry, you're safe."

Tom and I were taken that night. And my only thought as we struggle and kick is 'he lied. Dad said we were safe, but he lied.'

 **Sorry (not). If anyone can guess why I named Jasper/Jiper's kids Diana and Tom, I will dedicate a chapter to you and give you virtual blue cookies. Just leave it in the reviews and I will say if you are right.**


	7. Chapter 7: Panic (at the disco)

**Sorry, last time I updated I changed it it didn't save. Nico Di Awesome, thanks for trying, the theory about Die-Anna made me laugh, but you got it half right. The answer is: I didn't want to name one of them Thalia, but I wanted a tribute to her in some way, and Artemis' Roman name is Diana. In one of the books (I don't remember which) Piper talked about her grandpa Tom, and how much she missed him, so I thought that that would be a good way to remember him**

 **Chapter 7: Panic**

Piper POV

I wake up and see the sun streaming through the curtains. I look at the time and see it is 8:00am.

"JASON!" I yell. "I told you to wake me up at midnight so I could take a watch!"

He doesn't answer. I roll my eyes. He was probably trying to be brave and fell asleep on the job. I walk down the hall to go wake him up when I see him. He's just laying there, face down, not moving. I roll him over and see that he has been bleeding. Someone, or something did this to him. I burst into tears and then grab out my phone. With shaky hands I manage find Annabeth's name.

"Piper, what's wrong?" she asks as soon as she picks up.

"Jason- he-," I start, then run to Tom's room. "And th-the kids, they…"

"We're on our way, I'll ring everyone else."

I try to thank her but, I can't seem to get words out. I try to drag Jason onto the bed but he is too heavy for me in my current state. About five minutes after Annabeth hung up, everyone is at the door. Annabeth and I both burst into tears, knowing the others pain.

"Where's Jason?" Will asks.

I take him down the hall to where Jason is still laying on the floor. Percy and Frank lift him and take him into the bedroom and Will carefully feeds him ambrosia and nectar.

"I'm going to need to take him to camp, so he can get proper treatment," he tells me.

I nod, silent tears still streaming down my face.

I hear Leo, Percy, Frank, Nico and Isaac discussing how to upgrade security.

"I can upgrade the alarm system, but I don't think it'll help," Leo says. "They didn't even disable it. It looks like nothing has happened."

"Maybe we could take Sammy, Emily, Bianca and Anza to camp?" Percy suggests.

"Yeah. I'm sure they would be safe there," replies Isaac.

I see that Annabeth is listening too. We exchange a glance, and I can tell she is thinking the same thing I am. These monsters will stop at nothing to get to us. But at the moment, no one has any better ideas.

* * *

 **Luke POV**

I sit in the corner of our grey, windowless cell, thinking about what I could've done to stop it. They've taken my little sister for torture. Again. I could've been waiting with my knife, ready to ambush them, but no. I thought they were done with her, they have already hurt her enough. Suddenly, I hear a scream and a laugh.

 _'_ _Zoë.'_ I have to find a way out of here. I need to save my sister. All of a sudden, one of the- the THINGS burst into the room. It looks like a ghost, only it's solid, and has an ugly, hairy face. **(A/N Yeah, it's not an actual monster, but lets play a game. It's called the lets-pretend-that-this-monster-is-real game. Lets also play another game called lets-all-help-LolzBolz-to-think-of-a-name-for-this-monster-by-leaving-a-name-in-the-comments game)** It comes in through a hidden door that seems to change position each they use it. I look up, expecting to see Zoë, but instead see Tom and Diana, being thrown into the room. They are unconscious, so I go and wake them up.

"W-where are we?" Di asks groggily.

"I don't know, I just know that they hate our parents and want to torture us, until they eventually bring our parents, so they can kill us in front of them," I say. **(A/N: I'm sorry, I'm not enjoying this any more than you are)**

"Where's Zoë?" Tom asks.

My eyes fill with tears and I tell them what has been going on.

"We need to get out of here and take care of the monsters," Diana says firmly. "I promised Bianca that we wouldn't let them hurt her."

"Just then we hear the sound of Zoë's sobbing get louder. The monster (that's what I'm going to call it) burst in with Zoë in its arms. It laughs cruelly, throwing its hairy face back, almost in hysterics. I scowl at it, and it glides out, leaving us to comfort Zo, but not before smirking at us nastily.

"Right," Di says. "We need a plan."

* * *

 **Calypso POV**

I hold onto Esperanza tightly while trying to comfort Pipes. She is inconsolable, because both of her kids have been taken, and her husband is in a terrible condition. As soon as I heard what had happened, I picked up Anza and I haven't let her go since, not even for Leo to hold her. I am thinking about what we are going to do about these monsters when all of a sudden, little Bianca runs up to me, her eyes red rimed from crying. I don't blame her, her two closest friends have been taken by we don't even know what, to we don't even know where. She hands me a letter, then climbs up onto Nico's lap. Will has already gone to camp with Jason but he wouldn't let Piper come, because he needs time to recover. I open the letter and my eyes fill with tears. It reads:

 _Dear Antee Clypso,_

 _I promise to lok after_ _Anza wen we are tacken by the monstars. She will bee very safe with me and_ _Di loking after her so dont worrie about her._

 _Lots of love_

 _Bianca_

I walk over to Leo, read the letter to him, and then give it to Nico. As he reads it, his brow crinkles, and he takes Bianca to the spare bedroom. I hand Esperanza to Leo and follow him down the hall.

"Don't worry Bianca," he tells her. "We will figure something out. We'll take you to camp, fix the alarms, do something, anything to stop them."

"Yeah, don't worry, we're going to fix it," I add.

Nico looks at me gratefully and then goes out into the hall to ring Will. I pull Bianca onto my lap and stroke her long hair comfortingly.

"Thanks Auntie," she says, snuggling into me.

 **Okay, I know it was short, but it is just breaking my feels, especially the parts from the kids POV. Sorry if the three different POV's confused anyone, I just thought it was necessary. If anyone can guess (except Netoohey) why I named Leo and Calypso's daughter Esperanza, virtual blue cookies and a chapter dedication to you.**


	8. Chapter 8: How in Hades?

**Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. I meant to have this up on Percy's birthday, but I hadn't finished it and then I had my own birthday and I got caught up in a school writing project and it's just been full on. Anyway, I know you don't want excuses so, on with the chapter. Anyway, thanks to TheFancyFox for a name for the monsters. I won't tell you what it is yet, but it is perfect. (PM me if you don't want me to use your idea)**

 **Correct guesses for why I named Calypso and Leo's daughter Esperanza.**  
 **riptidedauntlessgryffindor**  
 **Nico Di Awesome**  
 **CarlaKitten21**  
 **Notreallyonhere aka guest**  
 **FangirlingFinnicks**

 **The correct reason was; Esperanza was Leo's mums name.**

 **Chapter 8: _How in Hades?_**

Zoë POV

Pain. That's all I feel. The torture has been going on for nearly four days now. They take me for an hour of nonstop pain, and then bring me back to my brother to rest for what I think is four hours, and then take me again. Luke and Di have been getting tortured as well, but only twice a day. Tom is on the same pain schedule, and we don't know why. They want information from us, but we can't give it. They keep asking us what our parents told us about the plan, but we don't know what they are talking about. When we don't answer, or tell them we don't know, they beat us even harder. The only thing keeping me sane is my brother. The monsters keep giving us ambrosia, to heal us, just so they can torture us some more. Di and Luke feed it to us in small amounts, and it helps, but not for long. But today, Diana has a plan. We will wait, until they come to take us, then Luke and her will spring on them with their knives, and Tom and I will escape to find help. Oh, here they come now.

"Everyone, in position," Diana whispers.

I curl up in the corner, with Tom next to me; while Luke and Diana wait with their knives out, ready to strike, just as our parents taught us.

But as the footsteps get closer, I hear the sound of screaming.

"Put me down!" someone yells.

Then I hear the sound of a baby crying, and I know its Bianca and Esperanza.

 _'At least she's putting up a fight,'_ I think. When Luke and I were taken we were so shocked we couldn't even do anything. Diana collapses on the floor. She told us of the promise she made to Bianca, and now she feels as if she has broken it. We go over to comfort her, and establish that we won't put our plan into action, we'll do it next time.

The monsters throw Bianca and Anza into our room and glide out, without a second glance. Bianca runs over to Esperanza and clutches her to her chest as though she is the only one in the world that matters. She squeezes her eyes shut and Tom and I run over to her (well, as fast as we can). I put my arm around her shoulders but she screams

"GET OFF ME!" and kicks me in the ribcage.

I collapse on the floor, as she hit me on one of the many bruises on my body. Luke runs over to me, and looks me over, but it's not broken.

"Bianca, it's us. Tom, Zoë Luke and- and Diana," Tom says softly. She opens her eyes and sees me on the floor.

"Zo, I'm so sorry," she whispers. "I- I thought you were one of them."

"It's f-fine," I manage to choke out.

When she sees the many other bruises and cuts she gasps.

"What've they done to you?!"

"They keep torturing us, asking us what our parents have told us about a plan," I tell her. "Trouble is, we have no idea what they are talking about."

Bianca pales.

"But don't worry Bi," Luke says. "We have a plan to bust out of here. We'll get back to our parents, I promise."

"And what does this plan involve?" she asks.

We fill her in on the plan and she has the same reaction and Tom and I.

"No. Nope. No way. Not gonna happen. No," she says. "We're not leaving you here. They'll," she chokes up. "They'll k-kill you,"

"Bianca, it's the only way," Diana says. "And besides-"

"They want to keep us here so they can kill us in front of our parents," Luke finishes glumly.

Bianca frowns.  
"But- but that would break them. They'd tell them any plan, ever," she says.

"We know that Bi, that's why you need to escape, to find help, and to rescue us, before our parents start coming in," Diana says gently, and we are about to tell her exactly how we plan to execute it, when we hear horrendous laughter, coming down the corridor.

Luke shoots a glance at Tom and I. We both nod slightly, indicating that we're happy to go through with another round of torture, and that we can attack next time, when Bi knows what to do. I then notice that this time there are three voices, not two, and know they are coming for Bianca as well.

"Bianca, put Anza down," I hiss, my eyes brimming with tears. I wrap my arms around her and say, "They want to take you as well."

She hands Esperanza to Diana and takes a deep breath, bracing herself for what is to come. The monsters burst through the door-which turns out is behind us this time-and slink in. One grabs me, one grabs Tom, and the one that grabs Bianca, goes over to Diana as well, and wrenches Esperanza out of her hands.

"Don't you DARE touch Esperanza!" Bianca screeches.

"And what is a little girl like you going to do to stop me?" the monster taunts.

Bianca kicks and screams, but we've tried it all before. It doesn't even faze them. It's like they are immune to everything, but we know they can't be immune to celestial bronze or imperial gold, can they?

Bianca squirms even harder, but nothing happens. The monsters just laugh, and start to walk out.

"PUT HER DOWN!" Bianca and Diana scream in sync.

"She can't even talk, what's she going to do?" Bi yells.

"She's going to break you, that's what," the monster replies cruelly.

"UGH!" (A/N is just me, or is writing someone screaming/grunting in frustration really awkward?) Bianca yells desperately. She squeezes her eyes closed and Anza disappears, reappearing a few moments later in Diana's arms. We stare at Bianca in astonishment, while the monster turns so grab Esperanza again, but Di runs away and the monster gives up, storming out of the cell. Tom and I shift to stare at Bianca, until we approach the familiar torture room. ' _How in Hades did she do that?'_ I think.

 **If anyone has any ideas from that they would like me to include, just leave them in the comments or PM me and I will try to incorporate them. It probably won't be for a while though.**


	9. Chapter 9: The Flashback

**Sorry. I have no excuse except laziness.**

 **Percy POV**

"Percy! Percy, where are you? Percy!" Annabeth calls, tossing and turning in bed. I check the time. 5am.

"Annabeth, I'm here. I'm here," I comfort her. She must be having a nightmare again. We've both been having lots of them since- since it happened.

"Annabeth, wake up, I'm here, I'm fine," I tell her again.

"Percy, where are you?" I frown in confusion.

"Wise Girl, wake up!" I say, shaking her.

She lets out a piercing scream, and by it's pitch, I can tell she is having another flashback to Tartarus. I frown. Neither of us have had one since, Luke was born. Oh. That's it. She was fretting about the kids and- and this happened. I wrap her in my arms and whisper words of comfort in her ear.

"Don't worry Wise Girl. I'm here, I'm here,"

"Percy," she calls out again, elbowing me in the stomach, winding me.

"Percy, no," she says, her voice cracking. "No! I won't let you die on me! Do you hear me Seaweed Brain? I won't let you."

"Annabeth, I'm here!" I choke out, feeling helpless for the billionth time this week. I don't know how to get her out of this state. I start to panic. 'No, don't 'I tell myself. Panicking isn't going to do anything. But I can't help her on my own. I grab out my phone and call Piper.

It rings three agonising times, when finally, Pipes picks up.

"Hey Perce, what's the matter," she asks, groggily, but slightly more happy than she was on Tuesday, since Jason is home and well again, with only a few cuts and grazes.

"It's Annabeth," I tell her. "She's having another flashback and I don't know what to do. I'm trying to comfort her, but she keeps thinking I'm trying to attack her."

As I'm talking, I hear Jason wake up and ask Piper what's going on.

"Okay, we'll be right over," Piper says, and I breathe a sigh of relief. At least I'll have some help to get through this.

I sit on the edge of the bed next to Annabeth and stroke her hair, while she screams and sobs. I start to cry. Seeing her like this kills me, especially when there's nothing I can do. Finally, after what feels like and eternity later, there is a knock on the door. I run downstairs and open the door.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou," I tell them. We hear another scream and Piper and Jason's eyes go wide. "She's upstairs."

Piper and I run upstairs while Jason walks uncomfortably behind us. I burst into our room and see Annabeth- my Wise Girl- hugging herself, tears streaming down her face. "Bob," she screams. "Help him!"

My own eyes refill with tears at the mention of our big buddy, while Piper rushes over to the bed and starts charmspeaking her. I see her relax slightly, and ever so slowly she calms down. I sit down on the edge of the bed, and hug her as she open's her eyes.

"Seaweed Brain?" she gasps, then realises what happened. "Oh my gods, I'm so sorry," she says, glancing around at Piper, then Jason standing awkwardly in the doorway.

"It's not your fault Annabeth," Piper says kindly, but her pained eyes give her away. We are all so worried, and we just don't know what to do.

"Thank you so much," I tell Piper, and Annabeth nods. "I would kiss you right now, but... actually, Jason can you kiss her for me?" Jason gives a small smile, kisses her on the cheek, then turns to us.

"You okay?" he asks with a frown.

I can't tell if it's directed at me or Annabeth, so I just let her nod.

"Thanks Pipes," she whispers, giving Piper a hug.

"Anytime," Piper whispers back.

Just then, my phone rings. We all pale and I check the caller ID.

"It's Frank," I say.

Annabeth sighs, and I answer the phone,

"Frank, Annabeth's just had another flashback, but Jason and I are on our way. The girls will stay here and help Annabeth recover, and will head over when they are ready. Where are you?" I say quickly, not even bothering to ask what's wrong.

"Thanks guys. We're- we're at Camp Half-Blood," he replies shakily.

"They got into camp? But how?"

At this statement, everyone's mouths drop open.

"We don't know, but can you get here as quick as you can?"

"Sure buddy, see you in ten."

I hang up and Jason and I rush to the car, but not before kissing Annabeth on the forehead. We rush downstairs, and jump in the car. The ride to camp is almost silent, except for the steady sound of the wheels turning and the air conditioner.

"Where are they, Percy?" Jason asks me suddenly, still keeping his eyes on the road. "Where are they taking our kids?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure we'll find them soon. If not, I'm sure they'll come to us. They're perfectly capable of handling themselves," I tell him doubtfully.

"I told them they were safe!" he yells at no one in particular. "I told them they were safe. I should've listened to Diana. I should've listened to Di."

"It's not you fault Jason," I try to tell him. "The monsters got through the boarders of CAMP for Hades sake."

"But Perce, you don't understand," he whispers. "Tom believed me. I lied to him,"

I've never seen Jason like this before. The worry must be getting to him. He's been being strong for Piper, but sometimes, you just need to let it out.

"Right," I instruct him firmly. "Pull over and hand me the keys. I'm driving, you just need to let it out."

We don't talk the rest of the ride, and the only noise is the quiet sound of Jason sobbing, but I pretend not to hear him.

I pull up at camp just while Jason is wiping his eyes. We rush inside and straight to the big house, where Frank is waiting for us on the deck.

"Thanks for coming," he says quietly. "How's Annabeth?"

"She's fine now, thanks to Piper," I say, "but how's Hazel?"

Frank furrows his brow, and Leo and Calypso join us on the deck.

"Follow me," he says solemnly, and leads us to the infirmary.

 **Dun! Dun! Dun! Is Hazel all right? Where are the kids? Why is Annabeth starting to have flashbacks again? Tune in next time. (Yeah, I actually don't know how long it will be until an update. Sorry. Cookies make up for it? (::) (::) (::) (::) )**


	10. Chapter 10: Hazel

**Jason POV**

My heart stops when I see Hazel. As soon as we saw Frank, I knew something was up, but this is beyond what I expected. Percy, Leo, Calypso and I all do a double take. Hazel, who's usually so full of life and love, laying, eyes closed and motionless on a bed. Her left leg is so obviously broken, and her head has a small patch of scarlet blood, trickling down onto her pillow, unmistakably still fresh

"What- what happened?" Leo chokes out.

"We don't know," Frank replies sadly. "She was on guard, and I heard a scream. I ran out and-" Frank chokes up.

"It'll be okay," Calypso soothes him. "Look, here comes Will now,"

I look to where she's pointing and sure enough, Will and Nico come running.

"We- just heard," Nico pants.

I give him a grim smile. He looks down at her and gasps.

"Will, do something!" he cries out. "I- I can't loose another sister."

Percy steps in and wraps his arm around his little cousin.

"No one is going to be lost, okay Nico?" he says sternly.

"And if you're going to be talking like that, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Your negativity will affect the other patients," Will adds.

Nico sighs in defeat, and sits down next to Hazel. Will examines her then turns to us.

"She's in a coma," he informs us, and I hear Frank's sharp intake of breath from beside me. "She should be okay. Her body will just need to heal, and when it does, she'll wake up. Normally it would take about two weeks, but with ambrosia, it'll be down to about a week."

Normally we'd smile at the news, but with the kids and the monsters, we're worried she'll be taken before she wakes up.

Annabeth and Piper choose that moment to burst in, making us all jump, and scan the room.

"Shit," Piper says when she sees Hazel.

Despite herself Annabeth shoots her a look, then turns quizzically to Will. "Coma?" Will nods. "And you've got no idea what happened?" Frank shakes his head. "Sorry Piper, I take that look back. Shit."

Everyone looks at Annabeth with shocked expressions. She _never_ swears.

Percy shakes his head, but is obviously still concerned. "You feeling better Wise Girl?"

She nods, and he visibly relaxes, taking her hand into his.

"Alright, enough from you two love-birds, is there anything we can do to help Hazel?" Leo interrupts.

"Just, keep talking to her, play her music, small things like that. We don't know if she can hear us, but it's important we try."

"Thanks Will," Frank says. "Why don't you guys get some sleep, I'll stay with her."

Percy and I look gratefully at Frank. We're both exhausted, and as much as they would protest, Annabeth and Piper are too. Leo and Calypso look pretty tired too, but Nico isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

"Thanks Frank," he says, "but I'd really rather sit with you."

"I understand," Frank says, and the rest of us retreat to our respective cabins (aka Percy and Annabeth in cabin 3 (thankfully Poseidon only has two other children, who both go home for the summer), Piper and I in one of the guest rooms in the big house and Leo and Calypso in bunker 9).

* * *

 **Sammy POV**

Crap. Crapity crap, crap, crap. First, we saw Mom get beaten up by those- those things. Then, we were taken by the same things. Then we were thrown into a cell with our cousins, and told that they are being tortured for some sort of plan that we know nothing about, and that neither celestial bronze, nor imperial gold works on the- Epilates is what they call themselves. Nightmares, apparently it translates to in Ancient Greek.

"What are we gonna do?" I ask. "When did you try to break out, and how did they punish you?"

"More torture," Diana whispers. Her long brown hair is dirty and tangled, and her eyes have lost their sparkle. She sits against the wall with Tom on one side, Bianca on the other, and Anza in her arms.

"We tried, we think about three days ago, but its hard to keep track in here," Luke answers my other question. Him and Zoë are in the corner, Luke still trying to get more nectar into Zoë's cuts, Zoë telling him its no use.

"Luke, if you put anymore on there, Zoë will spontaneously combust. Stop," Emily says. I grab her hand, and she lays her head on my shoulder. They have all lost hope. It's up to us to come up with a plan. We need to motivate them somehow.

"So, what exactly was your plan?" I ask them.

Luke takes a deep breath. "Tom, Zoë and Bianca were hiding in the corner with Anza. Di and I tried to hold them off while the others escaped, but they were immune to my knife, Tom's sword and Diana's dagger."

Emily and I exchange a glance. I can tell we are both thinking the same thing.

"Maybe you approached it the wrong way," she says.

"Maybe they're not immune to everything," I continue, but we are cut off suddenly by the sound of vicious laughter. Diana's grip tightens around Tom and Bianca, and Zoë starts crying into Luke's chest.

"I don't want to go," she sobs.

Emily walks over to Zoë and strokes her hair.

"It'll be alright. Just remember that we're here, and that we love you, and it'll be fine," she says soothingly. At that moment, the monsters burst in; Diana stands up and pushes Tom, Bianca and Anza behind her, while Emily and I stand in front of Luke and Zoë. They walk right past Di, and head straight for us. I assume they're coming for Zoë, for she seems to be getting the most torture. Quite possibly because she has the most resilience and willpower, and if they break her, they'll break everyone else. But instead, they ignore the two Jacksons, and roughly drag us out the hall. I hear Diana gasp, half in relief, half in frustration, and I hear Zoë collapse in a thankful heap on the floor. As we are walking down the hallway, I see a small window, high up, light streaming through, hurting my eyes. We must've been in there for at least three hours, because when we first entered, it was nearly dawn. I sigh as we go past it, and take in the various torture devices, most of which I'm pretty sure were banned in the 1800's.

"What's the plan?" they yell at us. "Tell us, and spare the pain."

"We don't know what you're talking about," Emily yells back defiantly, and the Epilates grin devilishly.

"Great. It's more fun this way."

 **I have nothing to say. Umm, please review if you saw any errors, have any constructive criticism, or if you are enjoying it. Anything would be appreciated.**


	11. Chapter 11: Action Time

**A nice long chapter for you this time. Hope you enjoy!**

Chapter 11: Action Time

Emily POV

I now know how they feel. The pain is almost unbearable, but we've got to fight it. I think Sammy and I know a way to get out of here, and we need to stay strong to put it in action. As we are thrown roughly back into the dimly lit room, the others crowd around us worriedly. Luke passes me some ambrosia, and I eat it gratefully, feeling much better even after just one bite. I savor the flavor of moms shrimp gumbo, thinking of when we last saw her. She screamed loud enough to wake the whole camp, though not because she was afraid, because she knew that no one would find her until the morning otherwise. I say a quick prayer to my godly grandfathers, and also to Apollo, that she can be healed quickly, then pull Sammy over to the corner.

"Powers. That's the answer, isn't it?" I say. "They're immune to imperial gold and celestial bronze, but maybe not demigod powers."

Sammy nods thoughtfully. "If we can get the others in on the plan, we'll be UNSTOPABLE!" He tries for an evil laugh to make _me_ laugh, but he is too sore, and ends up doubled over in pain. I hand him another square of ambrosia and help him up, and we make our way silently over to Luke, pondering the small details of our new idea.

"Luke, Di, can we talk?" I ask them.

Luke stands up, carefully examines Zoë, then decides she'll be okay, and walks over to join us. Diana reluctantly stands, and carefully hands Anza to Bianca, ruffles Tom's hair, and walks over to the other wall.

"Guys, we have a plan," Sammy whispers, so the others don't hear. We don't know the fine points, and we don't want to lift their spirits.

"Well, more of an idea, really," I continue, "but with you guys, especially Luke, we reckon we could put it into action."

Diana's eyes show a bit of interest, but Luke's betray nothing. He doesn't want to get his hopes up either.

"Remember when our parents had to save the world?" I ask, and they nod. "Well, they didn't just use their weapons. They had to burst into flames, summon the dead, breathe underwater, fly, transform into different animals, summon precious jewels, and plan strategically. Maybe that's all we need to do. We need to use our powers!" I say, getting rather excited. I see both of them stand a little taller, hope filling them up, just like it did to us.

"It may not work," I warn them.

"But it's worth a try," the other three finish my sentence.

"Luke, any ideas?" Sammy says, turning to him.

"Well, if Zoë and I combine our power over water, hmmm, maybe Sammy can change into a lion or a bear? Em, how are you going with controlling the earth?"

"I'm getting better. With the adrenaline rush I should be fine."

"Perfect. And Di, you might be able to fly up and distract them."

"What if Bianca does that thing again?" Diana asks.

"Oh yeah! We'll hove to-"

"What thing?" Sammy and I interrupt.

"Oh, right, you weren't there. The mon- Epilates were trying to take little Anza; and- I'm not really sure, actually. Anza just disappeared, and ended up safe in Diana's arms," Luke informs us.

Sammy looks thoughtful. "Maybe she _is_ a demigod, after all. I mean, we just _assumed_ that because she was adopted from a mortal orphanage that she was, well, mortal."  
"Yeah," I agree. "Mom thinned the mist around Bianca so that she could see monsters and would be safe, but maybe that wasn't necessary. Maybe she could already see through it."

We all ponder this for a while, until Luke says, "We'll have to bring it up with her Dads if we get back."

" _When_ we get back," I tell him.

"Whatever you say," he sighs. "Anyway, back to the powers idea..."

We spend the rest of the day plotting, only stopping when Zoë, Tom and Bianca are thrown harshly back into the room, a cackling laughter to be heard outside. We give them ambrosia, check them all out, and let them sleep, while we get down to the nitty-gritty of Luke's strategy.

* * *

Zoë POV

The four older kids come over to wake us up, looking excited. I can't sleep though, for whichever way I lay it hurts. As Luke walks over to me, I sit up and see a sparkle in his eyes that I haven't seen since we were brought to this place.

"What's going on," I ask. The sparkle disappears a little when he hears how sore I sound, but I try not to complain too much.

"Zo, how close is the nearest source of water? I got about one and a half miles away, but-"

I close my eyes and zone everything else out, trying to sense the water. It's easier than normal, I think because I'm so sore, because water heals my minor cuts and bruises, the same way it does for Luke. Apparently, if Dad's leg is like about to fall off or something, he can jump in the water for it to start to heal before help gets there. I open my eyes and nod.

"Yeah, about one and a half miles. Why?" I ask.

Luke looks around to Bianca and Tom, now sitting up groggily.  
"Come over here," he says.

I slowly get up and walk over to where Tom and Bianca were sleeping with Anza between them.

"What's going on?" I say, for all four of the older kids have a similar sparkle in their eyes.

"We have a plan!" Sammy burst out. "With powers and stupid monsters and-"

"It might not work," Luke butts in, shooting a warning glance at Sammy.

"Right, yeah. But it's worth a try, right?"

"Okay. I'm listening," Bianca says, always the optimist.

"Right. Anyway, we think we're approaching this the wrong way," Luke starts.

"How do you mean?" asks Tom.

"I was getting to that. Well, so what if they're immune to celestial bronze and imperial gold. All monsters have to have some sort of weakness," Luke lets it sit for a while. I chew my bottom lip.

"You mean our powers?" I ask.

Sammy nods. "You reckon you could do it?"

"I don't know. The water's pretty far away. I'm pretty weak," I say doubtfully.

"Come on, Zo," Bianca says. "It's worth a shot."

Luke looks at me with pleading eyes. It seems I'm the only one who objects.

"Okay. What's the plan?"

* * *

"But guys," I start to say, but am cut off by my older brother.

"Zoë, don't worry about us. We can handle ourselves. Anyway, our parents will be here in no time."

All the older kids nod, but Tom and I exchange a glance. We know better than anyone that our siblings' fatal flaws are hubris, excessive pride.

"Be careful," we warn, in unison.

Sammy smiles. "We'll make sure they're careful," he says with a wink.

"Thanks," I say, as I hear some footsteps in the corridor.

I run to the furthest end of the tiny room, as close to the water as I can possibly get, trying my hardest. Luke comes over too, and together, I feel the water gradually getting closer. I can only imagine what the mortals outside are thinking! Diana hovers just above the estimated eye level of the Ephialtes, Emily starts concentrating as well, Sammy turns into a... grizzly bear? And Bianca is holding onto Anza, trying to remember what she did before. We made the plan allowing for the fact that she might not be able to do it again, but if she can it would make everything go much smoother. A monster bursts in, closer to Luke and I than we expected. I lose concentration for a second, and feel the water start to retreat slightly. I focus again, and grab Luke's hand, nerves finally catching up with me. Finally, after what seems like hours, a drop of water starts trickling through a miniscule hole in the wall. It gets bigger and bigger until there is a strong stream of water flowing through the wall. The monster looks around in surprise and Diana takes the opportunity to jump on top of one of them, screaming a waving her dagger.

"Get off me you stupid girl!" the monster yells, and lets out a strangled sort of howl. I assume it means needing backup, because three more Epilates run into the room. Sammy roars and joins Diana, taking on another monster, and Emily summons small wall of black rock that is gradually growing. We all hold our breaths as Bianca concentrates and just like magic, one of the Ephialtes disappears. I hear it's strangled cry as it is teleported to the inside the small room of rock that Em has made. The stream of water gets stronger until the wall finally gives in. Luke and I wash away another of the Ephialtes so there are only two. When the other cried for backup I assumed there would be more coming, but I guess there were only ever four. We could never tell, they all look the same. Sammy has now cornered a monster, and it is looking around panicked. He lets out another tremendous roar, as starts to slash at the monster with his paw, aiming for the sensitive spots. It's beady eyes, it's mouth...

Suddenly, Bianca and Tom join Luke and I over by the hole in the wall. I give Luke's hand a squeeze.

"Good luck. Stay safe. We'll be back soon," I say, not quite loudly enough for and Ephialtes to hear. He winks at me, and Bianca, Tom, and I climb through the hole in the wall, helping each other out, passing Anza along steadily. I hear an inhumane shout, and a more human like moan, and begin to run, run, run. Sammy, Emily, Diana and Luke's lives depend on it.

 **Haven't written much action before, so tell me what you think! Constructive criticism is welcome!**


	12. Chapter 12: Freedom and Phone Calls

Chapter 12: Freedom and Phone Calls

 _'A chapter so soon? Wow LolzBolz02, you're impressing us all!'_ I can practically hear you saying. Yes, I've just been feeling really creative. Hope you enjoy!

Bianca POV

I don't know what exactly I did back there. I don't know how I did it or when I became able to do it, I just know that it helped. I feel a surge of pride rush through me, and look back to where we were being kept for the last few days, or weeks. I feel my mouth drop open with surprise. We were being kept in an abandoned supermarket? The thought makes me want to giggle, but the look on my friends face's stop me. If I were to laugh now I would probably get my head bitten off. Besides, my cousins are in danger, this is no laughing matter. I turn back to face Tom and Zoë, who are already running ahead, along the road, a car zooming past every half a minute or so. I catch up to them -not very easily might I add, running with a one year old is not easy. They look grim faced and worried, the same way I feel, but I've got to try to keep their spirits up.

"Feels good to be free, doesn't it?" I say.

"I guess so," replies Zoë.

"I'm just so worried about them," Tom says.

"Me too," I confide. "Anyway, have we got any strategy, or is it just run, run, run?"

"I think we'll just keep running until we find a police station, or until we need a break."

"But we can't accept a ride from _anyone_. They might be a monster."

We all nod in agreement. After what we've just experienced it'll take a long time for us to trust anyone.

As we run, we seem to get gradually closer to, well, actual people. The houses begin to look lived in, then they get closer together. We start to see small groups of shops, then bigger groups of shops.

"Stop!" I finally call, after many switches of 'baby duty' and what seems like hours. "Look!"

We run towards the police station, too tired to say celebrate, too relieved to say anything. We burst through the door, startling the man at the front desk so much that he falls off his chair. He stands quickly again, and his eyes widen with what I assume is recognition. Although, I don't know how he could recognize us. Our clothes are tattered and bloody, my hair is a tangled birds nest, we are holding a baby and we are all in desperate need of a shower.

"Z-Zoë? Zoë Jackson? Bianca Solace-di Angelo? Tom Grace? And is that Esperanza Valdez?" the man stutters.

We nod tiredly. "Where are all the others? Where are they?" he asks worriedly.

"Can I speak to my parents?" Zoë asks timidly.

"Parents. Of course. Of course," the man says, first to himself, then to us. "Yeah, of course. Um, you can all speak to your parents. Zoë first."

* * *

Annabeth POV

I feel my phone vibrate in the pocket of my sweatpants. I take it out and look at the caller ID, expecting it to be Piper calling for comfort, Percy double checking if we need milk or not, or Frank calling about Hazel, but it is an unknown number. I cautiously answer, because anyone could've gotten hold of my number, a monster even.

"Hello?" I say

"Hi, this is Mark from Nessmond (I'm pretty sure this place doesn't exist, I just made it up) police station, is this Annabeth Chase-Jackson?" says a crackly voice from the other line.

"Speaking. What can I do for you?"

"Well ma'am, I'm not sure if you know where Nessmond is?"

"No, I don't, I'm sorry."

"Well, it's in South Alabama, and well, we had some kids show up about 10 minutes ago. Hold on one sec," Mark says, and I hear some static while I think about what he means. I gasp, and start to tear up. It can't be, can it?

"Hey, Mom," I hear from the other end of the line. It is unmistakably my daughter.

"Zoë?" I ask, full on crying now.

"Yeah, it's me," she whispers.

Wait. I've had enough experiences with Cyclopes' to last a lifetime.

"Zoë, what happened at the exact minute you turned three years old?" I ask hurriedly.

She replies straight away with, "I summoned a small wave that came up from the beach and right into the house, and that's how you and Dad knew I had inherited his power over water."

"Oh, Zoë! Wait, where's Luke?" I say. This time it's Zoë who starts crying.

"Mom, how quick can you get here?"

I begin to panic. "Um, I'm sure uncle Nico can shadow travel us…"

"Great. I'll let the others talk to their parents, can you organize a way to get here, and make it quick. You might also what to bring Auntie Thalia, and Aunt Reyna."

Thalia? Reyna? This must be serious. "Zoë, wait!" I say, but she's already gone. I'm overjoyed to hear my daughter's voice again, after a week of my too good imagination being left to wander, but I'm worried sick about Luke. I bring my phone back down from my ear and begin to scroll through my contacts. My shaking hands struggle, but I eventually get down to _S_. I click on 'Seaweed Brain' and wait just one ring until I hear Percy's worried voice.

"Annabeth? Are you okay?"

"Seaweed Brain, I'm fine. Hey, I just got a call from a police station in Nessmond and-"

"Nessmond? where's that?" he interrupts.

"Somewhere in Alabama, apparently. But that's not important at the moment. I heard- they found them. I talked to Zoë!"

"What were the first words you ever spoke to me? While I was fully conscious, I mean." he asks cautiously, and honestly, I don't blame him. With our lives, he could be on the phone to anyone.

"You drool when you sleep," I reply, smiling a little at the thought.

"You're joking!" he says, clearly excited. "They found them!"

"Well, I spoke to Zoë. How quick can you get here?" I ask, as I hear my phone beep. Someone is trying to call me on another line.

I can practically hear Percy's eyes widen. "I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

I hang up the call and see it's Jason.

"Hello?" I say

"Did you hear?" Piper practically squeals. "They found them! Well, four of them anyway."

"Which four?" I ask. "Zoë was in too much of a rush to tell me much."

"Tom, Zoë, Bianca and Esperanza," Jason says.

"Whoever it is has still got the others, but I'm sure we can find them and beat their guts out for taking our babies," says ever the optimist Piper.

I smile. "Why don't you guys wait a little, then ring Nico or Will and start organizing a place to meet up. I'll ring Reyna and Thalia, and we can talk in twenty minutes."

"Alright, talk to you then," Jason says.

I lower my phone from my ear and scroll back through my contacts. Hopefully Reyna has her phone turned on, because she has a tendency to turn it off and leave it off. I click on her name, and wait a few rings, and then I hear Reyna's slightly confused voice.

"Hello? Can you hear me?"

I laugh. Living on Circe's island, then in Camp Jupiter, Reyna has about as much knowledge of technology as Calypso. And even then, Calypso has been living with Leo for the past twenty-odd years. "Yes, Reyna, I can hear you."

"Annabeth? I'm guessing there's good news then, if you're laughing!" Reyna says hopefully.

"Well, actually, there is! We got a call from a police station in Nessmond, somewhere in Alabama. They found Zoë, To-,"I start, but before I can finish, I am cut off by a shriek of joy.

"You're kidding!" Reyna squeals.

"Well, I haven't finished yet," I say. "They found Zoë, Tom, Bianca and Esperanza. I talked to Zoë, and they want us there ASAP. She said to also bring you and Thalia, because I think the others are in trouble."

I can practically feel Reyna nodding until she remembers that can't be seen on the phone. "Okay, what do you want me to do?"

"Where are you?"

"Um, I'm in New Rome," she says.

"Alright, can you be in the ice-cream shop in half an hour?"

"Sure."

"I've gotta call Thalia, so, I'll see you soon."

"Bye Annabeth."

I scroll through my contacts for what is hopefully the last time today and find Thalia. I press the call button and after a few rings I hear a male voice answer.

"Hello Thalia's phone. This is Isaac speaking," it says.

"Hi Isaac," I say, trying to hide my tone of surprise. "It's Annabeth speaking. Can I talk to Thals?"

"Sure, she's just upstairs. Can you wait one second?" he says, and I hear him yell up to Thalia.

"She'll be right down. So, you seem happier than when I last saw you. Has there been good news?"

"Actually, there has been. They found Zoë, Tom, Bianca and Esperanza at a police station in Nessmond, Alabama. We're shadow-travelling out to meet them in about twenty minutes."

"That's great! But what about- Oh! Here's Thals now. Bye Annabeth, I'm so happy for you!"

"Thanks Isaac."

"Hey, Anna. What's up? I heard Isaac say something about good news," Thalia says. She is the _only_ one who can get away with calling me Anna.

"Yeah! They found Zoë, Tom, Bianca and Esperanza at a police station in Nessmond, Alabama."

"WOOHOO!" Thalia cheers, but then remembers the others. "What about Luke and the rest?"

"Well, Zoë wouldn't say when I spoke to her on the phone, I think because there were mortals listening, but I think they're in trouble. She said to bring you and Reyna as well, so it must be serious."

Thalia sighs. "These monsters don't to things in halves, do they?"

"Apparently not. Hey, where are you?"

"I'm-" I can practically feel Thalia's blush. "I'm at Isaac's, about ten minutes from your place."

I laugh. "Now is not the time, but when this is all over, I will be investigating. Listen, can you head over here now?"

"Sure thing. I'm on my way now. See you soon!" she says, and hangs up, just as I hear keys in the front door. I run to the front of the house and see Percy opening the door, a stupid grin on his face, a grin I've come to love.

"Hey, Wise Girl!" he grins. He comes over to me and engulfs me into a giant bear hug. I hug him back excitedly, but then remember he doesn't know the whole story.

"Percy, they only found four of them. They found Zoë, Tom, Bianca and Anza," I tell him.

"Where are the others?" he says.

"There were mortals around, it was too risky to say, but I think they're in trouble. Thalia's heading over here now, and then we're going to meet up somewhere and shadow-travel to help them."

"And we're going to kick butt," Percy reassures me.

"Percy, they had to have been kidnapped for a reason. What if they found out about our plan?" I say, pushing him away.

"But- but we were so careful. How could they have found out about it?" he counters me, trying to calm me down again.

"Monsters have their ways. You of all people should know that."

"I guess. We'll just have to hope for the best but expect the worst."

I squeeze his hand, and feel my phone start to vibrate. It's Jason.

"Hello? What's the plan?" I ask quickly.

"Wise Girl, calm down," Percy says, wrapping a comforting arm around me.

"Is that Percy? Good. We're all heading round to Nico and Will's except for Will, who is staying at camp with Hazel. Frank says he needs to do something to get his mind off it, and what better way than fighting some monsters? What's going on with Thalia and Reyna?" Jason says quickly.

"We'll have to shadow travel to New Rome to pick up Reyna, and Thalia is heading round here now. We'll meet you there soon."

"Alright, see you then. And, be ready. Apparently the kids are not looking that great."

"Thanks Jason."

I hang up and pull Percy upstairs to the bedroom.

"We may be about to go and kick some monster butt, but first we're going to run into some mortals, we've got to look presentable," I say, going into our walk in wardrobe.

I pull out a pair of jeans for us each, and a clean t-shirt for us both, blue for him and a black one that says 'Bring it on' in white writing.

Percy laughs and kisses my forehead. "Perfect," he says.

A few minutes later, the doorbell rings, and we open it to Thalia standing on the front porch. She gives us an excited smile, and we rudely don't even invite her inside, just head straight for Percy's blue Ford.

"We're heading to Nico and Will's place now, Nico is going to shadow-travel us there," I inform Thalia as I climb into the shotgun seat, with Percy driving and Thalia in the back. "We're going to take a detour into New Rome to pick up Reyna on the way through."

Thalia nods and unconsciously fingers Aegis, a nervous habit she has had since we were runaways together.

"Thalia, calm down, we've fought monsters before," I say when I notice.

"Yeah, but Annabeth, I think these are different," she says. "I mean, they got into your house, they got past Valdez's security system, they even got into camp for crying out loud."

"We'll be fine Thals," Percy says. "Calm down. You're starting to sound like Annabeth."

"Better than sounding like you," Thalia shoots back.

I roll my eyes. "With you two bickering we won't get anywhere. Try to get on will you, just until we get this over with, I don't know how long I'll last." I say.

"Sorry Annabeth," they chorus like school children.

"That's better," I joke, but despite all our attempts, the rest of the car ride is silent, the tension in the air thick enough to be cut with a knife. We finally reach Nico and Will's and Leo opens the door.

"Finally," he says. "Let's go."

Thanks for reading! Also, I've published a oneshot called _Differences- A Solangelo oneshot_ , so if you could check that out that would be much appreciated.


	13. Chapter 13: Reunions

**Meant to have this chapter up ages ago, but when I finished it I couldn't post it because I didn't have internet *gasp* and then I forgot. Hehe ;)**

 **Chapter 13: Reunions**

 **Percy POV**

After Leo practically dragged us inside he slams the door and both Piper and Calypso tackle Annabeth into a massive bear hug. Jason comes over and grins, and Nico looks as excited as I've seen him in a while.

"How's Hazel?" Annabeth asks once she is able to breathe again.

"She's getting better, apparently," Nico replies.

"She's starting to respond to touch, as well as her favourite music," Frank adds. He looks terrible. Pale as Nico with huge bags under his eyes and stress lines on his forehead.

"Dude, have you slept since they were taken?" I ask Frank, referring to four days ago when the last attack took place.

"I've dozed, but I kept having nightmares,"-the rest of us nod- "or thinking Hazel was waking up. I'm not tired though, don't worry. I won't fall asleep in battle. I'm going to fight as hard as anyone to get my kids back."

I feel a little wave of shock as I remember that Frank hasn't heard anything about Sammy or Emily. He must be twice as worried as the rest of us.

"It's okay Zhang, we'll get 'em back," Leo reassures him.

"Speaking of which, we'd better get going, if we want to pick up Reyna as well," Nico says. "Where is she meeting us?"

"The ice-cream shop in New Rome," Annabeth says.

"Perfect. There's a McDonalds right across the road," Nico mutters, a little too loudly.

"Nico, why do you need to go to McDonalds?" Annabeth asks cautiously.

Nico turns red as a tomato. "I need to pick up a Happy Meal," he mutters.

"Neeks, why do you need to pick up a Happy Meal?" I ask teasingly.

He goes even redder, if that's possible. "For energy," he mumbles.

"Louder Nico, I couldn't quite hear," I say.

"Shadow-Travelling seven people plus myself takes a lot of energy! I need a refill!" he yells.

"Why couldn't you have ice-cream? Or even a normal McDonalds meal?" Calypso asks reasonably.

Leo kisses her cheek. "You know what McDonalds is," he pretends to wipe away a tear. "I'm- I'm so proud."

"Nothing works as well as a Happy Meal," Nico says, both him and Calypso choosing to ignore Leo's comment. "Anyway, let's just go. Everybody got their weapons?"

We all nod, sobering up pretty quickly after our lame excuse for a laugh.

"Let's go then. Everyone, hold onto"-Nico glances around, and his gaze lands on the bookshelf full of Will's medical books. He pulls one out. "This book."

After some extensive studying (Annabeth re-reading Harry Potter) we've discovered that Nico's shadow travelling can work kind of like a Portkey from Harry Potter. If Nico is holding an object (a book in this case) that someone else is also holding onto and he shadow-travels away, still holding onto the book, both people touching the book will also disappear, not just Nico.

We all grab onto the book and I double-check my pocket for Riptide before the familiar-but-still-unpleasant sensation of shadow-travelling washes over me. We appear in the New Rome ice-cream shop exactly as we planned, and Reyna rushes over and grins at us all.

"Are you ready?" she asks, unsheathing her gladius.

"Not quite," Jason says, glancing across at Nico, who has gone pale-even more pale than normal.

"Excuse me for just a second," he says, and runs out of the shop and across the street to McDonalds.

"You know, I'm surprised that New Rome has a McDonalds," I say. "Most of it is just small business that are exclusive to New Rome."

Reyna laughs. "Actually, McDonald's was founded in New Rome, by two children of Edesia, the Roman goddess of feasting!"

Leo's jaw drops. "Who would've thought? MY WHOLE LIFE IS A LIE!" he exclaims. He then turns to Jason. "Why didn't you tell me? I thought we were bros?"

Jason lifts his hands up in surrender. "I didn't know either."

They both turn to Reyna, and just as Leo looks as if he is about to tackle her, Nico bursts in panting, holding an extra happy meal in his hand, for what I assume is after the second shadow-jump.

"Right, let's go." He glances around, taking in the angry expressions on both Leo and Jason's faces. "Did I miss something?"

"Yes," Leo says. "McDonald's-"

"Doesn't matter," Annabeth interjects. "We can sort this out later. Right now we have more important things to do."

"Correct," I say, shooting my own death glare at Reyna. "Let's go. Nico, do you know where the police station is?"

"I think so. Can I just have one more look at the map?"

Annabeth pulls out her phone and opens Google Maps. "So if you could get us here" -she points to a spot just around the corner from the police station- "because we don't want to just appear in the police station. I don't think even the mist could hide that."

Nico nods. "Alright everybody, hold on."

Once again I am thrown into the uncomfortable realm of the shadows. I don't know how the others feel when they shadow-travel, but Nico did tell me once that the feeling is amplified for Jason, Thalia and I because the shadows resist children of Poseidon and Zeus because of their rivalry with Hades. As we enter the mortal world again I have to blink a few times before my eyes adjust to the bright sunlight. I look around to see everyone else doing the same except Nico who is bent over breathing intensely. I rush over to him and pick up the extra happy meal but he waves it away.

"Until- we get-there," he says in between pants. "I- couldn't get there- in one go- just give me a second."

We wait five minutes until Nico is ready to travel again.

"You sure you're ready?" I ask.

"We've got a Happy Meal. I'll be fine."

When we arrive at the police station Annabeth insists on knocking politely before the rest of us barge in, our ADHD taking over and making us impatient. The only ones who stay back are Thalia and Reyna, but even then, they rush forwards to see their 'nieces and nephews' after a short time. As we barge into the police station the man at the desk looks shocked.

"You're quicker than we expected," he says.

Annabeth steps in with a prepared lie. "We just happened to be in North Alabama searching for our kids. We just hopped in a couple of cars and drove down."

"Right. Of course," he says. "I'm Mark, by the way. Um, the kids asleep at the moment, and they're in pretty bad shape, I'd let them rest for a little before you see them if I were-" he says, but he is cut off by a voice that is unmistakable. "MOM! DAD!" Zoë yells.

We run over to each other like in those movies except we were most definitely not running in slow motion. We engulf her in a huge hug, my two girls crying. I even start to tear up myself. I hear the other two kids rush out to meet their parents, and Leo and Calypso go into the other room to see Esperanza who is still asleep.

"Zoë! Oh gods, Zoë, we were so worried!" Annabeth says.

"We missed you so much!" I add.

"We missed you too," Zoë whispers, still hugging us both. We step away to ask about Luke, and my breath catches. Annabeth starts to cry again, but not happy tears this time.

"Zo," I whisper. "What did they do to you?"

We hug her again, and she flinches when we hold too tightly. "I- I'll tell you later," she says, glancing at Mark.

We nod stiffly and glance at the others who look similar. I take in their bruises and cuts wordlessly, my imagination running wild with possibilities.

At that moment, Leo and Calypso come in from the other room, Leo holding Anza, both their eyes glistening with tears but their mouths drop open when they see what has happened to our children.

"What- what did-" but as soon as Leo talks, Esperanza stirs. She begins to cry, and Leo starts to hand her to Calypso until she opens her eyes.

"Dada!" she gurgles happily.

"That's right baby, Mommy and Dada are back!" Leo says, tickling her stomach. She squeals with laughter, and, unexpectedly, she bursts into flames!

"Mama! Dada!" she laughs, and the flames grow brighter.

Leo grins and holds his daughter close. "My beautiful baby girl," he says, turning to Calypso. "I told you she would inherit my-" but he is cut off by a sharp elbow to the side. She glances at Mark, who is standing horror-struck across the room.

"Um. Oops?" Leo says.

"Your- Your baby!" Mark yells. "Your baby is on fire!"

Thalia steps forwards. "What are you talking about?" she says, snapping her fingers. The mist is so thick I can practically feel it floating around, clouding the mortal's vision. His eyes glaze over and he blinks confusedly.

"Right. Yeah, I-I don't know what came over me. Sorry," Mark stammers.

"It's all good," Leo jokes, shooting a grateful glance at Thalia. "My hotness has that effect on people."

We let out a collective groan and Mark turns red as a tomato. Annabeth turns quickly back to Zoë and Bianca.

"Have you had any ambrosia?" she whispers, after making sure Mark has left the room.

"That's practically the only thing that kept us alive," she whispers back. "They fed us a tiny bowl of soup every day or second day, depending on how we behaved. If they- I'll tell you later, but yes, they gave us ambrosia."

"Who's they?" I question worriedly.

"Monsters. They called themselves Epilates," Bianca interjects.

"Nightmares," Annabeth, Nico and I translate immediately.

"They don't sound like something I want to mess with," I add.

The girls shake their heads as Mark opens the door and walks in, holding a stack of papers.

"Here's their reports, just sign here and you're free to go," he says. "We'll keep searching for the others, but the kids wouldn't talk except to you and to ask to speak to you."

We glance around at our children, confused. Unless... it is too dangerous for a mortal to go near.

"Thanks, um Mark."

We file out solemnly, everybody thinking about one thing- defeating the Ephialtes.

After walking out of the police station, we stare at each other cluelessly until Annabeth pulls out her phone. We look blankly at her, but she quickly types something into the search bar, then dials a number. She waits a minute, but then there is an answer.

"Yes, hi. My name is Annabeth Chase-Jackson, and my friends and I are looking for a place to stay?" she says to the person on the phone.

She pauses for a little, listening to the other person speak until she replies with, "We'll be needing seven rooms."

Another pause then- "Uh huh."

"Okay."

"Alright, we'll see you in half an hour."

She takes the phone from her ear and turns to us.

"I've found us a hotel to stay in. It's a little bit of a walk away, but we can start planning on the way."

We nod and Annabeth shows us the directions on Google Maps. We start walking, unconsciously making sure that the kids are in the middle. I hold tightly to Zoë hand as she, Bianca and Tom tell us all about the Epilates.

"They look kind of like ghosts," Bianca starts. "With glowing red eyes though. And they're able to touch us." She shivers at the thought.

"When they first took Luke and I, it was fine. They fed us, though we were kind of in shock for the main part. The next day was when it got serious. They started asking us about- about some sort of plan that you had. They said someone had overheard you talking ab0ut how 'the plan' would change demigods lives forever. We told them we didn't know what they were talking about, but they didn't believe us. They started-" Zoë burst into tears, Bianca too.

"Bi, what did they do?" Nico asks, stressed.

"They tor- tortured u-us," Bianca finally manages to get out.

I squeeze Zoë's hand even tighter. "It's okay," I whisper. "You're safe now."

"Can we stop talking about this now?" Tom interjects. We turn to him to find him shaking, silent tears streaming down his face. Piper is hugging him tightly, and Jason is holding his hand.

"Of course, Tom. We're sorry," Thalia who has been strangely silent whispers.

When Tom stops shaking, we start walking again, this time in silence until Annabeth speaks up. "I'm sorry, kids. I just want to double check one thing," she says. "So these- these monsters said they overheard something about a plan?"

The kids nod miserably. We all look around at each other worriedly.

"Where could they've overheard it?" I ask. "We were so careful."

The rest of them shrug, but Zoë looks up at me, he big, green eyes still red rimmed from her tears. "You mean, there really was a 'plan?'" she says.

Piper sigs when Tom looks up at her with the same expression. "Aunt Annabeth had the idea, but Uncle Leo is putting it into action," she explains. "We had the idea to make a- a sort of perfume for demigods, that can weaken the scent, or for the younger or less powerful demigods, get rid of it completely! It's still a work in progress, mind, but it is getting better."

Zoë grins. "That's amazing! No wonder those stinking monsters want to get their hands on it."

I ruffle her hair. "Thanks kiddo. Now, tell us about your daring escape."

"It took us two attempts, actually," Tom says.

As they tell us about the first attempt, I begin to frown. I don't see any fatal mistakes in their plan, so what went wrong?

Tom fingers his key ring nervously, as if he afraid of our reaction. "But as we tried to attack them our blades went straight through. They didn't dissolve into dust or anything," he says.

Annabeth frowns. "Monsters immune to celestial bronze and imperial gold? I've never heard anything like it. How is it possible?"

We all shrug helplessly, leaving Annabeth to puzzle over this new mystery.

"Well, if it didn't work the first time, and they're immune to celestial bronze, how did you escape?" Piper asks, trying to lighten the mood again.

Bianca and Zoë grin. "It was Sammy and Emily's idea, actually," Bianca says. Frank stands up straighter, for it is the first news of his kids since they were taken.

"Are they okay?" he asks.

"Last we saw," Zoë says. "Em saved my life, and Sammy was a grizzly bear."

We turn to look at her, but she waves her hand like it's nothing. "We're getting to that."

"As I was saying, it was Sammy and Emily's idea actually," Bianca says, pretending to be annoyed. "See, we'd all been trapped in a tiny, dark, room, being tortured every day, we'd kind of lost hope. Or maybe we were just hoping for you to show up and look after us. Either way, we weren't doing anything productive. Until Sam and Em showed up. They were strong and extremely stubborn-"

"Really stubborn," Zoë adds. "They wouldn't take no for an answer."

Frank swells up with pride at the compliments, but his eyes betray that he is still terrified for their lives. As we walk, Zoë, Tom and Bianca tell us about what happened, interrupting each other to add more detail. As we reach the part about Bianca transporting the monster, they have to backtrack and tell us about what she did the first time with Esperanza. We all turn to Nico who is looking thoughtfully at his daughter, as if she is hiding something. When Zoë tells us she thinks she heard a human-like scream as they were leaving, she looks like she is going to cry again, but it's like she has no tears left.

I turn to Annabeth who is looking at our daughter and our 'nieces and nephew' with such pride I think she is going to explode. "You were so brave," she says. "So, so brave. And so were all the others. Let's go make a plan so we can get our family back."

 **Sorry about the crappy chapter. It was just a filler. So was the last one actually, hehe. Um, have some blue cookies? (::) (::) (::)**


	14. Chapter 14: More Fighting

**Hi, so I know it's been like a month since the last update *sweats nervously* and I do have excuses but you probably don't want to hear them BUT I do have some good news. I hit 50 pages and 20,000 words on this story while writing this chapter! Hooray! Blue cookies for all! (::) (::) (::) (::)  
Also I noticed I've been spelling Epilates wrong this whole time so I went back and changed them all (hopefully). Enjoy!**

Chapter 14:

Frank POV

I look at my hotel room longingly. A queen sized bed and two singles. A room for a family. I turn around and walk back out, not wanting to reflect on the bad things in my life. I go straight across the hall to Annabeth and Percy's room which mirrors mine, but with Zoë and Bianca sitting of the beds talking it looks...better. It looks right. I sigh, and walk over to where Annabeth, Percy and Nico are standing, talking in hushed tones.

"...could shadow travel." I hear Nico finish.

Annabeth ponders that for a little. "It could work, I guess. But would you be strong enough for all of us?"

He shakes his head.

"What are you talking about?" I ask. I see that Annabeth is so engrossed in her thought she barley acknowledges me. Her grey eyes scan me, as if not seeing me as Frank, but a weapon we can use against the Epilates. She had the same look in her eyes when we were on the Argo II.

"We're just trying to work out a plan of attack," Percy says. "Apparently we can't go in without a plan."

"You can't, Dad," Zoë calls from the bed. "That's not how things work."

Percy rolls his eyes and mutters something that sound like, "Like mother like daughter," but I can't be sure. He turns back to Annabeth.

"They're right Perce," I say. "We can't just barge in there without a plan, especially because they're still holding our kids captive."

Nico nods in agreement, and Percy just mutters something else which doesn't sound like a compliment. "Whatever. I'm going to get Jason."

He leaves, and I turn back to the others. "What've we come up with so far?"

Annabeth tells me a rough version of what she is thinking, and Jason, Thalia, Reyna, Percy and Piper join us halfway through.

"Sounds great, Annabeth," Reyna compliments.

Jason nods, but then tilts his head as though he has just thought of something. "What are we going to do with those three?" he asks, jerking his head towards the bed where Zoë, Bianca and Tom are sitting, trying to cheer each other up.

"Calypso's already offered to stay here with them and Anza," Annabeth tells us. "She'll be fine if any stray monsters stumble upon their scent, but she's never really been the violent type."

"True that," Leo says, entering the room holding Anza, Calypso by his side.

"Now that we're all here," Percy notes, "Let's get on with the planning so we can get out of here and go home."

Annabeth rolls her eyes but obliges. Her, Nico and Jason do most of the planning with occasional input from the rest of us, or Zoë, Bianca or Tom. I don't have ADHD, but at the moment, I'm as hyperactive as Leo and Percy I'm so anxious to get going and see my kids again. I zone out slightly and begin to think of them and Hazel, what they are doing right now, if Will is taking care of her. I'm so caught up in my thoughts I don't hear Annabeth calling my name.

"Frank? Frank! Are you okay?"

I blink a couple of times and turn to her. "S-sorry, I'm a bit distracted."

Her steely gaze softens and she looks apologetic. "Understandable," she says. "I was just asking if you would be okay to be a distraction. If you could transform into an animal that they would recognize, we could get you into the room where the kids are being held- which, is presumably a different storeroom because those three burst a whole in the other one, but that's a different matter all together. Anyway, we'll somehow get you into the room where they are. Hopefully they'll recognize you straight away, and they'll know we're coming, but the Epilates won't know it's you."

"So kinda like a code?" I say.

"Exactly like a code," she confirms.

"Sounds great," I say. "It'll work like a charm."

Annabeth grins, and turns to the others. "Then I think we're sorted."

"Are you sure, Mom?" Zoë asks. "Maybe you should just go over the plan one last time."

Annabeth shoots her a small smile and Percy sits on the bed next to her and squeezes her tightly."We'll be alright, Zo," he comforts her. "It's not like we haven't done things like this before."

Annabeth sits on the other side of her and kisses her forehead. "Stop worrying Zoë, we're going to be okay."

I notice Bianca crawling into Nico's lap and whispering something into his ear. He smiles and whispers something back, while Tom goes over and hugs Jason and Piper so tightly I think they're going to suffocate. Leo cradles his baby lovingly, and I feel another stab of pain, and selfishly wish that Sammy and Em had not been so selfless. Reyna notices my pain, although I thought I was hiding it pretty well. Then again, Reyna and I grew pretty close during our praetorship. **(I don't even think that's a word. Oh well, it is now.)**

"Hey, spark up," she tells me. "You'll be seeing them soon. All of them."

I smile weakly at her, as Annabeth stands up with tears in her eyes.

"Let's go guys, the sooner we get this done, the better."

We file out slowly, dreading what is to come, hoping it will work out well.

"We're going to smash this guys," Leo says when he comes out the door after a goodbye with Calypso. "I mean, the kids could do it, we can do it, am I right?"

"Yeah guys, let's go!" Percy agrees.

As we reach the hotel lobby Thalia uses the mist to make it look as if there are only a few of us leaving. The mortal's might start asking questions if they see so many people leaving, without their children, at 5 PM at night. We rush across the lobby and walk for a bit. After a while we manage to hail two taxi's and tell them a location about half a mile from where we want to get to. It's too dangerous for the mortals to know.

I don't even register who I get in the cab with, everything is just a blur, and all I can think about is my family. They're okay, they're okay, I tell myself, until it is my mantra for the whole cab ride and the whole walk. When we finally arrive I've almost convinced myself it is true, and as Annabeth quadruple checks that I'm okay with being a distraction I feel a surge of hope which is probably fueled by adrenaline.

"Let's do this," I say, before transforming into a bulldog, something small, but also big enough to be seen by the kids. Annabeth smiles down at me before sneaking over to where Zoë said the room with the whole should be, and I follow. Sure enough, there it is. The kids definitely under exaggerated their escape, the hole is barley big enough for Bianca, the tallest of the three.

"Okay, remember the signal?" Annabeth asks.

I nod my head and let out a small growl.

"Good luck," she whispers. "We'll be right here."

I jump through the hole, and find myself in a tiny, grey, windowless room. There are bloodstains in one of the corners, and old boxes from when it must've been a storeroom for the supermarket in the other. I scan the room for an exit but can't seem to find one, like Tom told us. I transform into a dragon and burst a hole in another wall. I find myself in a corridor and quickly transform back into a bulldog, in case the Epilates heard something and come to investigate. If they do come, hopefully they just think the wall was weakened by the 'spectacular breakout' as Leo calls it.

I wander down the corridor for a bit, trying to work out where they are. I can only imagine what the others are doing right now, especially since I've been taking so long. Percy, Annabeth, Leo and Jason's ADHD will be going crazy. I can basically see the four of them pacing, Leo creating something stupid, Annabeth muttering strategies, Jason tossing his coin and Percy fingering Riptide. Piper will probably be trying to calm them down, but she'll be so worried her charmspeak won't work properly. Reyna, Nico and Thalia will probably be the only ones in their proper positions, so I'm hoping I'm somewhere near one of them when I give the signal. I'm just beginning to give up hope of finding them in time, Annabeth said if I don't find them within ten minutes to come back, because it's too dangerous to be inside, when my supersensitive doggy ears pick up something unmistakable from through the wall to my left.

"Em, we're fine, we're fine, c'mon, wake up," says a desperate voice. "Emily Zhang, if you don't wake up right this instant I'm going to get Luke to splash you."

"Alright, alright," Emily says weakly. "I'm awake."

"Oh, thank Zeus," Sammy replies, sobbing, finally letting go. "Don't ever do that again. I-I thought we'd lost you."

I hear Emily sobbing as well, and if I wasn't in dog form I would definitely be crying myself. I then hear what sounds like Luke offering her some ambrosia.

"Why do you have to be so strong and stubborn," Diana complains, and I suddenly remember my mission and the plan here. I scan the wall to see if I can find out exactly where the room is, and once I have located it, I see a small weakness right in the bottom corner of the room, because the Epilates have once again made the doors magic. I charge directly at the weak spot, hoping all the extra training I've been putting in recently has made not only Frank stronger, but the bulldog stronger. It works, and I wince a bit as I hit the wall, but I burst straight through it, like in the Harry Potter movies **(A/N Do you know how much it hurt to write movies? I just thought with his dyslexia it would be hard to read the books)** when he is catching the Hogwarts Express. I look around and see shocked looks from all directions. Luke and Diana are leaning against the furthest wall, talking it looks like. Sammy is in the middle of the room, but it looks like he was heading into Emily's corner.

Emily! I hardly noticed her, lying in the corner. They're all bruised and bloody, but Emily looks so much worse. She is thin- more so than the rest of them- and has a black eye and- is that a broken arm? I'm about to ask what happened until I remember I'm in dog form, and I just run over to her and growl.

"Dad!" she finally manages, and it's as if a switch has flicked. Luke and Di struggle to their feet and they all crowd around me.

"What are you doing here?" Sammy and Diana say in unison.

"What's the plan?" Luke asks.

All of a sudden I remember what we discussed and bark three times, just loud enough to be heard outside. I hear a pitter patter of feet and Nico appears in opposite corner of the cell. I quickly transform back to human form and pick up Emily.

"Get Emily out of here first, quickly. before the Epilates hear us!" I say, handing Em to Nico. I kiss her forehead before they disappear and she smiles weakly at me.

"Dad! It's good to see you, but, we've got company," I hear Sammy say behind me.

I quickly turn and see four Epilates facing me, exactly the way Bianca described them.

"Sammy! Your aunts and uncles are waiting outside. Find an animal and smash through the wall. I'll hold them back."

I turn to face the Epilates and pull out my gladius, forgetting that it won't work on them. They just smile at me and lunge towards Diana who is still just about speechless. I channel all my rage and turn into a lion to jump in front of Luke and Di. I let out a roar and edge forwards, ready to pounce. But there are four of them and only one of me, and they're not stupid. They split up, one targeting Sammy, one Diana, and one Luke. I hear Diana cry out in shock, and feel the spray of water that can only have come from Luke. Di finally regains her senses and I hear the crackling of lighting from behind me, and then Nico finally makes his way back into the room.

Instead of grabbing the rest of the kids, like we planned, he sees Sammy in bear form, struggling to break through the wall, so I feel the room get slightly colder as he sends some shadows over to help. There is an almighty BANG! as the wall finally collapses and suddenly Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Leo, Thalia and Reyna are helping fight. The crackle of lightning gets three times as strong, and the spray of water does as well. Out of the corner of my eye I see Nico disappear with Luke, Sammy and Di, and them reappear alone on the other side of the room, sending waves of shadow as he goes. Reyna is using her spear, but instead of bouncing off the Epilates as my gladius did, hers is cutting straight through them, because her weapon has been enchanted by her mother.

Within no time, the monsters are stuck in a corner, with no way to escape. I turn back into Frank, and take the scene. Suspended over the head of one monster is what looks like a bucket of water without the bucket. If the Epilate moves, Percy lets a bit of water drip onto its head, making a sort of sizzling noise. It must hurt it, because it's working. Next to that, one of the other monsters is being regularly zapped by powerful bolts of lightning, keeping it sorted. The third Epilate is asleep, but in case it wakes up, Leo has surrounded it with fire. The last monster is bleeding Ichor, and is at Reyna's spear point. I was having trouble keeping it under control, so Reyna helped. Suddenly, Annabeth speaks up, startling me out of my thoughts.

"Will they go to Tartarus, do you think?" she asks.

"There's only one way to find out," Percy, Jason, Nico and Thalia say, their voices full of loathing.

"Okay then, on three. One. Two. Three," Annabeth instructs us, and all of a sudden the room is filled with the sizzling sound of water on a hot pan, thunderclaps as loud as a drum, the crackling of a campfire (I thank the gods Hazel still has my charred little stick) and the sound of an Epilate crying out in pain.

"I think they're dead, at least for a little while," Percy grins. "C'mon Wise Girl, I'm going to find Luke."

 **Thanks for reading!**


	15. Chapter 15: Did you say flight?

**Chapter 15: Did you say flight?**

 **What did you guys think of the last chapter? I wasn't too happy with it. Diana was OOC, and I really struggled to write Frank because I never really connected with him, but I'd love to hear your feedback.**

 **Recap:** I think they're dead, at least for a little while," Percy grins. "C'mon Wise Girl, I'm going to find Luke."

 **Percy POV**

I turn to leave the 'holding cell' with Annabeth at my side, but Nico chases after us.

"I couldn't leave them where we planned," he tells us. "There was a special event on, and there were mortals everywhere. I had to drop them somewhere else, that's why I took so long."

"So where are they?" I ask.

"Well, I can't exactly give directions, because I'm not quite sure, but I can definitely shadow travel back there."

I sigh. "Nico, there's no way you're shadow travelling all of us again so soon. You've just used your powers a lot, and Will is going to kill me if you melt into a puddle. Take Frank, he can send us directions from his phone," I say. Nico only ever uses his phone for ringing people and texting people, he says the rest of the functions are useless. I guess they are, but I didn't grow up in the forties so I actually know how to use everything.

Everyone else nods, and so Frank grabs Nico's arm, and they are swallowed by the shadows.

"What now?" Jason asks.

"We wait," Annabeth replies.

After what seems like an agonizing hour (though Annabeth informs me it was only ten minutes), Jason's phone buzzes. We all crowd around him, and look at the screen, where Jason opens the message from Frank. It's a screenshot of where he is on Google maps, zoomed out just enough to see where we are as well. It's a few miles away, and so we all walk together, Jason directing us occasionally.

The mood is considerably lighter, a few jokes cracked here and there, a few stupid conversations to fill in the gaps. After about fifteen minutes, Jason's phone buzzes again, with another message from Frank, saying that they are in an abandoned warehouse, and that the kids are fine, if not a little hungry. We all subconsciously speed up, because none of us can wait to see our kids again. As we get closer to the warehouse, I begin to worry. What if Frank lied to us, to keep us calm? What if Luke is hurt? What if they're all injured? Images flash through my head, and I can't help but think of the worst case scenario.

I grab Annabeth's hand, and almost as if she can read my mind, she squeezes back. "They're fine, Percy. If anything was seriously wrong Frank would've told us to hurry," she says. "Most likely, anyway," she continues, and I realize she's just as worried as I am, and she doesn't even believe her own words. I wrap my arm around her shoulders, and follow Jason around the corner.

Another left, a right, two more lefts and another right. We turn into the street, which is completely empty except for the huge metal warehouse. It looks like it's two stories, and probably about 200 square feet. We stand in the shadow it's casting onto the street, welcoming the cool change after warm early September sun. No one wants to be the first one in, we're all afraid of what we'll find, but finally Reyna steps forwards. It's as if a spell has been lifted, and the rest of us follow her to the door. Jason raises his fist to knock, and he only has to once before Nico answers the door, practically glowing with a dark aura.

"Nico, what have you _done_ ," Reyna shrieks, rushing towards him. "We _told_ you not to overextend yourself!"

Nico barely looks guilty. "I couldn't let Calypso, Bianca, Zoë, Tom and Anza miss out."

"Nico!" we all say in unison, but I don't think any of us are crazy angry. I mean, he didn't die, and he got the others for us.

"Right," Reyna says, pulling Nico slightly away from us and sitting him down on a crate leaning against the wall. "You, sit down right there and _don't_ move. You need to _rest._ "

Nico grumbles a bit, but he knows it's true, so he sits down and closes his eyes. I suddenly remember why we're here, and turn around to scan the warehouse for Luke. I was right, it is two story, and it is _hot_ in here from the sun beating down on the metal. There are a few crates scattered here and there. I see Frank and Sammy crouched over an Emily who is smiling weakly at us. I frown and am about to go over there when I hear Annabeth cry out. I turn and see Luke, who is nearly as tall as her, hugging her tightly.

"Luke, oh thank the gods," Annabeth says.

"Thank the gods," I echo, enveloping him in a hug of my own.

"Ouch, Dad, arm," he complains, and I shift slightly so he can protect his seemingly injured arm.

He hugs us back, and I feel Zoë wriggle her way into the middle as well. Our family, just the way it should be.

Annabeth pulls away, her face wet with happy tears, and examines Luke thoroughly. I do the same, not even realizing that my cheeks are also wet.

He has a black eye, and he cheeks are sunken, but he has the shine back in his eyes that Zoë said was missing while they we locked up.

He notices us looking, and gingerly moves his right wrist. "Uncle Nico said it's probably fractured."

"How did that happen?" Annabeth asks before I can even open my mouth.

"I don't know."

"How can you not know?!" I ask this time.

"Well…did Zoë and the others tell you what happened when they were, um, questioning us?"

We nod, and Luke frowns.

"After Zoë, Bianca, Tom and Anza left, they didn't even ask us questions, just took us to the room down the hall. After they were finished they didn't give us ambrosia. It must've happened then. But don't worry about me, have you seen Em?"

I turn back around to where I saw Frank, Em and Sammy, and my breath catches in my throat. Sammy and Diana look almost the same as Luke. Di has a huge bruise right on her cheekbone but is smiling happily at Jason and Piper, teasing her mom about all the tears. I subconsciously wipe my own eyes, and notice that Sammy isn't walking properly on his right ankle. But Emily takes the cake. She can't even sit properly without Frank or Sam, and her face is a covered in blood from a huge cut on her forehead. Her arm is bent at a strange angle and she only appears to be half conscious. She's alive though, which is the main thing. Frank is trying to get her to eat some ambrosia but she refuses bluntly, saying she'll be sick if she tries.

"What happened to Em?" Annabeth asks, before I've even gotten over the shock.

"She gave them a lot of trouble during the 'great escape,'" Luke says. "She was amazing, actually. Trapped one in a room made of stone that was almost indestructible. When they did break through, she made another wall on separating them from us, buying the rest of us a little time to get our strength back. But it drained her and she was already weakened before they broke through. They saw how weak she was, and how much she'd done, and gave her almost double the- uh- punishment.

"Then, when she finally did get her strength back, she was typically stubborn. The Epilates started questioning us again, and instead of keeping quiet, like we always had, she gave them snappy comebacks and sassy remarks. Of course, they didn't like that, so they tortured her even more. We're lucky you came when you did, we almost couldn't wake her up…" Luke trails off, thinking of what might have happened.

"We did come, so it's fine," I say, ruffling his hair. "I'm going over to see how she is."

As we walk over, Emily smiles at us, the same old smile that she's always had, and I can almost forget the scarlet staining her face.

"You okay, Em?" I ask.

"I'm okay," she replies. "Just a little sore."

"A little? Em, you can barely move!" Sammy exclaims. "And you haven't even had any ambrosia!"

"Emily, why not?" Annabeth asks. "You know it will help, right?"

"Of course I know that. I feel like I'll be sick if I eat anything."

"Let me put some nectar on, then. At least in that cut," Frank says, the worried expression he's had since the first note so long ago hasn't left his features, not like the rest of us.

"Fine. But- "

"But nothing. No complaints, young lady. It was your stubbornness that got you here in the first place."

Emily groans and I can't help but smile a bit. It's almost back to normal. Almost. Hazel is supposed to be here making peace in her own sassy way, and Will is supposed to be here making sure Emily, Luke, Sammy, Diana and Nico take care of themselves.

"Have you had any news about Hazel since you got here?" I ask Frank, and any color he had left in his cheeks drains out instantly. "I promised Will I'd ring. Can you take over here?" he motions to the nectar and Annabeth sits down next to Emily, gently dabbing at her forehead with the godly substance.

"Let me know if I hurt you, okay?" she says.

Emily nods weakly lets Annabeth take care of her, wincing slightly when Annabeth touches the cut on her head, but with no complaints.

Frank walks back over to us with a completely different expression on his face.  
"How's Mom?" Sam and Em ask in perfect unison.

Frank grins at them, and then the rest of us. "I spoke to her. She woke up about an hour ago. Her leg's still broken, but apart from that she's completely fine. Will tried to tell me the medical side of it all but I zoned out, all I know is that she's okay."

"Who's okay?" Piper asks, coming over with Jason, Di and Tom.

"Mom woke up," Sammy grins happily. "Her leg's still broken but she's okay!"

"That's great news!" Diana squeals, attracting the attention of Reyna, Thalia and Bianca who are sitting on the crate with Nico by the door.

Reyna helps Nico hobble over so we can tell him the news. If it's possible, his smile gets even brighter, and I can't help but think of the kid I knew years ago, who never smiled, or laughed, and the closest he got to socializing was with zombies. I make a mental note to thank Will (again) next time I see him, and turn my focus back onto the conversation.

"So when can we go home?" Emily asks.

"Well, since we don't have Will, we're going to have to take you to hospital to get your arm fixed, before we do anything else," Frank says, and Emily looks like she's having some sort of argument with herself.

"I've changed my mind," she finally says. "I'll have some ambrosia for my arm."

We all smile and Jason passes her a few pieces. "It won't heal fully, but we just got you back, we don't want you to spontaneously combust on us, do we now?" Emily laughs, and swallows them quickly, almost as if she's trying not to taste it. She tries to move her arm, but it must still be fractured, because she winces.

"Can you give Luke some too, Jason?" Annabeth asks, gesturing to Luke's fractured arm. Jason passes some over, and Luke smiles gratefully.

"Here, give me your arm," Nico says to Emily, pulling out a roll of bandages. He carefully straps up her arm, so that she can't hurt it too much.

"Let's head back to the hotel to get cleaned up," Annabeth says when he's finished. "Our flight's in two hours."

Nico and Thalia pale, and I feel slightly dizzy.

"D-did you say _flight?_ " Nico asks, and Annabeth rolls her eyes.

"It'll be fine," she says.


	16. Chapter 16: Zeus is Ungrateful

**Chapter 16: Zeus is Ungrateful**

 **Hey, I'm back! There's a very, very important authors note at the end, please read.**

 **Jason POV**

After we've all cleaned up and (mostly healed) Piper, Diana, Tom and I head to the lobby where we've arranged to meet. We're the first ones there so we sit down, and Piper starts braiding Di's hair. Braiding is a nervous habit she has, she even tried to braid my hair once! I wonder what she's nervous about?

 _'Maybe she's worried about Hazel,'_ I think. _'Or she's afraid that more monsters will target the kids. Honestly, I don't bl- '_

"Dad?" Tom pipes up, startling me out of my thoughts. "That woman looks funny."

Almost as if it's rehearsed, the 'woman' turns to face us, a malicious grin on her face. Sure, she's pretty, I'll give her that, but for an Empousa she's not very smart. They usually attack in groups. I feel Tom tense next to me, and Diana let out a small growl.

"I've got this," Piper and Di say at the same time.

"Diana, stay here," Piper tells her.  
Di raises her eyebrows. "Really, Mum? I'm 14, and after what I've just been through, I think I can handle myself."

Piper opens her mouth to say something, but I interrupt. "Go for it, Di," I say. "She's literally ten steps away," I say to Piper when she protests. "If anything happens, you can easily intervene."

She agrees reluctantly, and Di is off with a thumbs up and a grin.

We watch as she talks to the 'woman,' both pretending they don't know what the other is. Suddenly, the Empousa strikes out, but Di is ready, and cuts off her hand with a knife borrowed from Annabeth (she insisted the kids all needed to be armed, just in case, and Di left her own knife at home). The Empousa shrieks, alerting the staff members, but Thalia comes downstairs just in time, and sees what is happening. Quick as lightning (no pun intended), she weaves a veil of mist thick enough for the mortals to forget what they just heard, or in some cases, saw. While the Empousa is distracted by the mist surrounding them, and the pain in her arm, Di summons the wind and hovers right over the Empousa's head. When she looks up again Di dives down cuts her head clean off. The Empousa dissolves into the ever so familiar golden dust. Di turns to us with an 'I told you so' grin. I turn to my left and Piper looks proud, yet slightly annoyed. On my right, Tom is looking at his sister in awe, although I know he'll blatantly deny it if I mention it later.

"Nice one, Di!" I say a little too loudly, causing a few stares from other guests. She swells with pride as Luke, Zoë, Percy and Annabeth come down the stairs, seemingly in the middle of an argument.

"Seaweed Brain- "Annabeth says before noticing the small pile of golden dust a few feet from Diana, and the knife she still hasn't put away. "What was it?" she asks.

"An Empousa. Just one which is odd," Piper says. "But Di took care of it, no problems."

Annabeth shoots her a grin, then her game face takes over. "That means either there are too many of us in the same spot for a long period of time or- "

"Or out concealment scent isn't working," Leo juts in from the top of the stairs. He's looking from the dust, to Di, to Annabeth and then back to the dust again, so he must've figured out what happened.

"Exactly. But I think it's the first option, since Empousa nearly always hunt in a pack, she must've been a stray. Di, did you get a name?" Annabeth asks, almost as if she's dreading the answer, like she knows of a stray Empousa.

"Rubi, I think," Diana replies, and Annabeth's gaze softens.

"Must've just been a stray who picked up a whiff of us. We've been here a long time, and there are lots of us, no matter how much scent concealer we put on, something's going to find us," I add.

"What's going on?" asks Reyna, who's late as always. Ever since she left the senate, where it was crucial to be on time, she's relaxed to the extent that she's always late, as if she's rebelling in her own way. We explain the attack to her, and she looks at Di with as much pride as if she were her own daughter.

"We'd better get out of here as quickly as possible then," Reyna says.

"Our flight's at quarter past two, that's in about an hour and a half," Annabeth says, "but by the time we get to the airport, we'll only have to wait about forty minutes."

"You know, we could just shadow travel- "Nico begins, but is cut off by a chorus of 'no' from everyone, even the kids!

"Well, I could...erm...ask Poseidon if..." Percy trails off as Annabeth and myself give him a _'really?'_ look.

"We don't _have_ to fly," Thalia says, looking at us with her best ' _please give me pity'_ look. "I mean, couldn't we just, um..."

"Walk?" I say sarcastically.

She glares at me, but she knows as well as I do, that flying is our best- and only- option.  
"I'm going, with or without the rest of you," Frank interrupts our silent sibling glare-off, as he walks straight in between us, towards the lobby doors. Sammy and Emily follow him, as do Calypso, Leo, and Reyna. The rest of us eventually fall into line behind him, Percy, Nico and Thalia staring sulkily at the rest of us. As we wait outside the lobby, Annabeth calls several taxis', and we scramble into them, those of us not afraid of flying, and even occasionally those who are, cracking jokes and re telling stories.

* * *

As we get closer to the airport, Nico, Percy, Thalia and Luke gradually go silent and pale. By the time we get to our gate, Percy and Nico are just about shaking. It amuses me, a bit, to see three of the strongest demigods I know so afraid of something I find so simple. I mean, really, they've got nothing to be afraid of. I'm about to point this out, but Annabeth beats me to it.

"Percy, Jason and Thalia are on this flight, there is no way Zeus is going to strike the plane down," she says.

"Yeah, Papa," Bianca chimes in.

"And Luke," I add, noticing the lack of color in his usually tanned face, "unlike these two idiots, you've never done anything to make Zeus angry."

"I know," he says, in a small voice, "it's just that I've never been in an airplane before. It's a huge, heavy metal object suspended in mid-air. If anything was to go wrong, whether or not it is affected by Zeus, we'll go plummeting to our deaths."

"Not. Helping." Thalia says though gritted teeth, and I notice Zoë also loose a bit of colour from her face.

"Nothing is going to happen, relax," Piper says, putting a smidge of charm speak into her last word. "No one here has done anything to piss Zeus off, and the chance of anything non-godly happening to the plane is highly, highly unlikely. Even if it were to happen, there are two children _and_ two grandchildren of Zeus on the flight, so he'll probably make sure we land softly or something like that."  
As she finishes, I notice a mortal looking at us a little strangely, and I look at her an wave. She turns around, squirming, and we all laugh.

Forty minutes later, although Piper's speech and the clueless mortal lightened the mood considerably, Nico is still arguing with us about getting on the plane, and Percy looks like he is about to chime in on Nico's side.

"Nico, Zeus' children are on this flight, there's no chance in Hades he's going to strike it down," Annabeth argues rationally.

"He'll probably save everyone but me," Nico says. "The guy hates me!"

"Me t- "Percy starts, but he stops when Annabeth, Piper and Reyna glare at him. "I mean, Nico, it'll be fine."

After putting up a good fight, Nico eventually gives in, and reluctantly climbs into the airplane.

* * *

 ** _Percy POV_**

I walk into the plane behind Annabeth, holding tightly to Zoë's hand, and I notice Annabeth saying something 'comforting' to Luke. I get that she's trying to help, and we both love her for it, but she doesn't know what it's like. I know I sound like an emotional teenage girl, but it's true. Zeus and Athena have almost always got along, so she's basically got nothing to be afraid of. Zeus has always hated me (even though I returned his lightning bolt, rescued his daughter and saved Olympus...twice. Ungrateful asshole.) so I've never felt safe with me feet off the ground. Having Jason and Thals on the flight helps a bit, but Zeus is so powerful he could just manipulate the winds so save everyone _but_ me (oh, and Nico, Zeus hates him even more than he hates me).

The plane is just a small one, with the seats split into two sides of three. I look at my ticket and sit down towards the front of the plane, in a window seat. Great. Luke sits next to Diana, and right across the aisle from her is the rest of her family. We agreed that having someone his own age to talk to would help Luke stop thinking about the fact that we were in a huge metal object suspended gods know how many feet above the ground and from the fact that we could plummet to our deaths at any moment... (they didn't seem to think I need distracting.)

Annabeth and Zoë take their seats behind us with Reyna in the aisle, and the rest of our group spread out through the airplane. As the usual announcements come on over the loudspeaker, Annabeth leans forwards and asks me if I'm okay. I'm seriously tempted to sing 'I'm not okay' by My Chemical Romance (Thalia loves that song) but then I think better, and just nod. She squeezes my hand, then turns back to her conversation with Reyna, something about the best strategy for a sneak attack.

During the entire 2 hour and 25 minutes it takes to fly to JFK, I can't stop shaking. I try to engage in Luke and Di's conversations as much as possible, but all I can think about is how I'm in Zeus' realm, and that my loving uncle could strike me down at any moment. The air hostess sees my distress and tries to comfort me, and so do Annabeth and Zoë, but it's useless. When we finally touch down, if I wasn't already seated I would collapse from relief. I jump up when the seat belt sign is turned off, and hurry Luke and Di out into the aisle. Lucky we're towards the front or I would be bowling people over to get out of this flying death machine. Annabeth laughs at me, and I turn around to stick my tongue out at her (mature, I know), when I see Nico, who is so pale his skin is practically translucent. He is gripping Bianca's hand so tightly I think it might fall off, but she's too sweet to say anything. He locks eyes with me, and I grin at him and motion to his daughter. He must suddenly realize he's hurting her, because he abruptly let's go.

"Thanks Papá," I hear her giggle, before I turn back to thank the air hostess who was so nice to me. She waves it off, and tells me it happens all the time.

As we reach the arrivals section, we're about to go to the baggage return when Emily pushes past me from behind, soon to be followed by Sammy, and then, to my surprise, Frank. I watch them go, and realize they're running towards Hazel, Will and...my mom and Paul! I'm about to send Zoë and Luke over to them, because Mom had been sick with worry, when I notice they've already gone. Mom is holding Zoë tightly, while she kisses a reluctant Luke on the forehead, and Paul is patiently waiting for his turn. Will is hugging both Nico and Bi, and Hazel has her arms around the twins, while Frank sneaks up behind her and smothers all three of them.

"And you!" I hear Mom say to me, when she sees us approaching. "You didn't even let me know you were leaving! You could've been _anywhere!_ "

"Sorry Mom," I say, only half faking the ashamed look on my face. She shakes her head, then embraces Annabeth and me in a bone-crunching hug that she knows is always welcome.

* * *

After hearing the story once again about how the little kids escaped, the four older kids tell us their theory on Bianca's new found power.

"Just because you guys adopted her from a mortal orphanage, doesn't necessarily mean she's mortal," Luke says to Nico and Will later that same day. We all decide to stay together for a little while longer, so we're all eating lunch at Nico and Will's house.

"Her mortal parent might not have even know she was a demigod," Emily continues calmly.

After not much discussion, we agree it is the most likely situation, and so we head to camp to consult Chiron. We pack up the cars and kids and make our way there, but, as it turns out, there's no need to ask Chiron, because as soon as Bianca steps into the camp, Hecate's torch flares above her head. Chiron, who had come out to greet us, looks on with mild amusement, while the rest of us look at each other, baffled.

"Is it coincidence?" Nico says, thinking out loud. Chiron shakes his head.

"Hecate has always been watching Bianca. When she heard you two were looking to adopt, she had Bianca put in just the right orphanage at just the right time, and, well, here we are now."

 **IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!**

 **This is the end of this story (for now). I'm honestly not enjoying writing it, and I have other things I want to write, but I always feel guilty when I'm not writing this. I'm marking it as complete, but if I ever get inspiration to write a little one shot about the kids, I will probably just post it on the end of this one. I have some more idea's for things I want to write though so keep an eye out for those (I even have an original idea that I'm thinking of, so check out my wattpad under laurenandherbooks to see that). Thanks so, so, so much for reading this crappy lil story of mine,**

 **-LolzBolz02**


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